J0J  r^: 


':®>-> 


.--^ 


>1^?>      ^^^ 


t):^  :^r>^Wy\^^ 


CHARLES  8,  ALEXANDER. 


7^ 


>>*?_^ 


i>-^S>ss 


•^"^ 


^  ■  i^  ~:»i^ 


Cibrar)^  of  €hc  CKcolocjical  ^tminary 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 
PRESENTED  BY 

Mrs.    Winthr"         .    Alclrich 


,       \  ''^^^^y:/^'\'A  '^X'^V^/va'^V  <^''V>>^n  ■  . 

.^'^.\^^'^^^"^.  "i'^.\^  /WN^ /;/.^^^  ;?^^  'c 


y .  •\Tp-/' 


\\1r 


Qi^-r^^^' 


'^•^^'^/5 


lOt>L.-^Ot) 


^ 


i 


SERMONS 

PREACHED    BEFORE    THE    CONGREGATION    OF    THE 

FRESB^'-TERI^ZS'    CHURCH, 

CORNER  OF  FIFTH  ATENUE  AND  NINETEENTH  STREET, 

AT    TUE 

'' MEMORIAL  SERVICES" 

OCTOBER    9,     1S59. 
APPOINTED  IX  EEFEREXCE  TO  THE  DEATH  OF  TDEIR  LATE  PASTOR, 

JAMES  WADDEL  ALEXANDER,  D.D. 

BY 

CHARLES  HODGE,  D.D., 

AND 

JOHN  HALL,  D.D. 


PUBLISHED  AT  THE  REQUEST  OF  THE  SESSION  OF  THE  CHURCH 


NEW-YORK: 

A  X  S  O  X     D  .     F  .     R  A  X  D  O  L  P  H , 

6  S  3     BROAD  W  A  Y . 

1859. 


\ 


SERMON 


CHARLES    HODGE,    D.D 


SERMON. 


"  He  preached  Christ."— Acts  9  :  20. 

iN'oTHiNG  hi2:lier  than  this  can  be  said  of  any 
man.     Angels  stand  uncovered  round  the  hum- 
blest tomb  on  which  these  words  are  inscribed. 
And  so  do  we.     The  feeling  which  has  gathered 
this  audience  ;  which  uow  fills  every  breast,  bows 
every  head,  and  moistens  every  eye,  is  reveren- 
tial  love   for  him  who   in   this   desk  preached 
Christ.     Had  he  discoursed  on  anv  other  theme, 
though  with  the  tongue  of  angels,  and  although 
he  possessed  all  knowledge,  so  as  to  unfold  all 
mysteries,  he  had  been  admired  and  forgotten. 
Associated   as   he   is   with   your  knowledge   of 
Christ,  your  experience  of  his  grace,  your  hope 
of  salvation,  you  at  least  never  can  forget  him. 

1.  In  preaching  Christ,  he  preached  that  Jesus 
of  Nazareth   is  the  true  Messiah.     As  Paul  was 


6  HE    PREACHED   CHRIST. 

pressed  in  spirit,  and  testified  that  Jesus  "svas 
Christ,  and  as  Apollos  mightily  convinced  the 
Jews,  and  that  publicly,  showing  by  the  Scrip- 
tures that  Jesus  was  Christ ;  so,  from  this  desk, 
you  have  been  taught  that  all  the  promises  and 
predictions  relating  to  the  person  and  work  of 
the  Messiah  refer  to  Jesus  of  Xazareth.  You 
have  been  taught  that  he  is  the  seed  of  the 
woman  who  was  to  bruise  the  serpent's  head  ; 
the  seed  of  Abraham  in  whom  all  the  nations  of 
the  earth  are  to  be  blessed  ;  the  Son  of  David 
who  was  to  sit  as  king  on  Zion ;  whose  dominion 
is  to  stretch  from  the  river  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth  ;  who  was  to  be  a  h'ght  to  the  Gentiles  and 
the  glory  of  his  people  Israel ;  who  was  to 
bear  the  sins  of  many,  and  make  intercession  for 
transgressors ;  before  whom  the  kings  of  the 
earth  were  to  shut  their  mouths,  and  to  whom 
every  knee  shall  bow,  and  every  tongue  confess 
that  he  is  Lord. 

2.  He  preached  that  this  Jesus  is  the  Son  of 
God.  So  Paul  preached  Christ  in  the  synagogues, 
that  He  is  the  Son  of  God.  Here  Christ  has 
been  constantly  held  up  as  the  second  person  of 
the  Godhead,  the  eternal  AVord,  who  created  all 
things,  visible  and  invisible,  and  who  upholdeth 
all  things  by  the  word  of  liis  power.  For 
tliis  incarnate  God,  your  profoundest  adoration 


HE   PREACHED    CHRIST.  7 

lias  been  demanded,  yonr  supreme  love,  the 
obedience  of  the  conscience,  and  the  devotion  of 
the  life.  He  has  been  presented  as  the  proper 
object  of  the  religions  affections ;  and  you  have 
been  called  upon  to  receive  him  as  God  in  yonr 
inner  life,  and  taught  that  spiritual  and  eternal 
life  consists  in  fellowship  with  the  Son  of  God, 
in  knowing,  worshipping,  and  serving  him.  You 
have  been  warned  that  to  deny  the  Son  is  to 
deny  God  altogether ;  that  to  profess  to  worship 
God,  and  yet  not  to  worship  the  Son,  is  a  contra- 
diction ;  that  if  to  any  the  glory  of  God  in 
Christ  be  hid,  they  are  lost ;  that  there  is  no 
clearer  manifestation  of  God  ;  that  if  men  do 
not  believe  in  light  as  luminous,  they  can  not  be- 
lieve in  light  as  a  fluid  diffused  through  space  ; 
if  they  do  not  believe  in  hre,  they  can  not  be- 
lieve in  heat  as  latent ;  if  they  do  not  believe  in 
God  as  seen,  they  can  not  believe  in  God  as  un- 
seen. Christ  has  therefore  been  here  preached 
as  the  true  God  and  eternal  life. 

3.  When  beset  with  all  manner  of  doubts ; 
when  all  around  you  seemed  dark,  and  no  cer- 
tainty as  to  truth  was  from  any  source  to  be  ob- 
tained, Christ  has  been  presented  to  you  as  the 
faithful  and  true  witness.  He  has  been  exhibited 
as  the  Word,  tlie  Revealer,  the  source  of  all  cer- 
tain knowledge.     You  have  not  been  taught  to 


8  UE   PREACHED   CHRIST. 

regard  truth  as  something  to  be  attained  by  re- 
search or  received  on  the  testimony  of  reason. 
Keason  here  sits  veiled  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  and 
hears  from  his  lips  the  answer  to  her  anxious 
question  :  What  is  truth  ?  IJis  answer  carries 
with  it  its  own  evidence.  Luminous  and  illumi- 
nating, it  enlightens  the*  understanding,  it  har- 
monizes with  our  consciousness,  so  that  every 
chord  vibrates  in  unison  with  his  celestial  voice. 
As  the  heavens  are  high  above  the  earth,  and 
can  not  be  disturbed  by  the  power  of  man,  so 
faith  founded  on  the  teaching  of  Christ,  is  exalted 
above  all  the  assaults  of  skepticism.  In  this  sense 
you  have  been  taught  that  Christ  is  of  God 
made  unto  us  wisdom. 

4.  When  burdened  with  a  sense  of  guilt,  and 
disturbed  by  a  fearful  looking  for  judgment,  a 
judgment  all  the  more  fearful  because  felt  to  be 
deserved,  and  apprehended  as  inevitable ;  in  this 
pulpit  Christ  has  been  preached  as  your  righteous- 
ness. You  have  been  taught  to  regard  your  own 
works,  all  you  can  either  do  or  suffer,  as  utterly 
unavailing.  You  have  been  pointed  to  the  Son 
of  (lod,  clothed  in  our  nature,  made  under  the 
law,  fiiltilling  all  its  demands,  working  out  for 
you  in  your  name  and  in  your  behalf,  a  righteous- 
nesswhich  satisfies  all  the  requirements  of  justice, 
and  whose  merit  is  commensurate  with  the  infinite 


HE   PREACHED   CHRIST.  V 

dignity  of  Him  whose  rigliteoiisness  it  is.  Clothed 
in  this  spotless  robe,  yoii  feel  secure  even  before  the 
bar  of  God.  The  man  by  whose  instrumentality 
you  have  been  thus  clothed  with  the  righteousness 
of  God,  and  made  partakers  of  that  peace  which 
passes  all  understanding,  must  have  appeared  to 
you  as  Paul  appeared  to  the  Galatians ;  as  an 
angel  from  heaven,  as  one  sent  of  God,  to  de- 
liver you  from  everlasting  perdition,  and  to  place 
your  feet  upon  a  rock  against  which  neither  your 
own  sins  nor  the  gates  of  hell  ever  can  prevail. 
As  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness, 
so  has  Christ  been  here  lifted  up,  and  you  have 
looked  on  him,  and  live. 

5.  Your  lamented  pastor  ever  preached  Christ 
as  your  sanctification.  When  oppressed  with 
the  consciousness  of  pollution  and  helplessness; 
when  convinced  that  you  could  not  change 
your  own  hearts,  could  not  repent,  could  not 
even  feel  your  guilt  or  mourn  over  your  cor- 
ruptions ;  when  your  heart  as  been  as  a  stone, 
and  your  constant  lamentation  was,  that  you 
could  not  make  yourself  holy,  or  in  any  mea- 
sure prepare  yourself  to  receive  the  grace  of 
God,  he  endeavored  to  convince  you  that  you 
were  acting  like  a  deformed  child,  who  should 
try  to  make  itself  beautiful  before  it  could  trust 
its  mother's  love.  He  unfolded  to  you  the  mys- 
1^ 


10  HE    PREACHED   CHRIST. 

terj  of  sanctification,  by  showing  yon  that  it 
is  the  love  of  Christ  produces  lioliness,  and  not 
lioliness  in  ns  that  prodnces  the  love  of  Christ; 
that  he  loves  ns,  not  becanse  we  are  lovely,  but 
makes  ns  lovely  by  the  assnrance  of  his  love. 
He  led  yon  to  see  that  yonr  life  is  hid  with 
God  in  Christ,  that  it  is  not  yon  that  live,  but 
Christ  that  liveth  in  yon  ;  and  tlierefore  that  the 
only  possible  way  in  wliich  yon  can  ever  be  de- 
livered from  the  dominion  of  sin,  and  transformed 
into  the  image  of  God,  is  not  by  any  eiforts  of 
yonr  own,  not  by  any  educational  process,  not 
b}"  acts  of  self-denial  or  penance,  not  by  the  effi- 
cacy of  any  external  rites,  but  by  believing  that 
Christ  loves  yon,  notwithstanding  your  nnworthi- 
ness,  and  by  receiving  from  him  thegift  of  thelloly 
Ghost.  In  other  words,  Christ  has  here  been  pre- 
sented as  the  only  source  of  sanctification,  as  his 
righteousness  is  the  only  ground  of  justification. 

6.  He  who  so  long  filled  tliis  ])ulj)it,  preached 
Christ  as  a  Redeemer,  not  only  in  the  sense  already 
mentioned,  as  freeing  ns  from  tlie  condemnation 
and  power  of  sin,  but  as  the  deliverer  from  all  evil. 
He  has  been  here  exhibited  as  clothed  with  al- 
mighty power,  imbued  with  infinite  wisdom  and 
love,  pledged  to  save  his  people  from  the  allin-e- 
ments  of  the  W(.)rl(l,  from  tliu  nuieliiiKitions  of 
Satan,  and  from  the  power  of  their  enemies;  as 


HE    PREACHED   CHRIST.  11 

raising  them  above  the  cares  and  sorrows  of  this 
life,  sustaining  them  in  times  of  trial  and  in  the 
hour  of  death,  and  delivering  them  at  last  even 
from  the  power  of  the  grave,  and  presenting 
them  faultless  in  soul  and  body,  before  the  throne 
of  God,  as  the  trophies  of  his  redeeming  grace. 

You  will  bear  me  w^itness  that  he  whose  de- 
parture we  so  much  lament,  did  preach  Christ  as 
the  Messiah,  as  the  eternal  Son  of  God,  as  the 
only  source  of  truth,  as  our  righteousness,  sancti- 
fication,  and  redemption.  From  Sabbath  to  Sab- 
bath, publicly,  and  from  house  to  house,  he  tes- 
tified that  this  is  the  true  grace  of  God  ;  and 
thus  preaching,  he  was  made  of  God  to  you  a 
savor  of  life  unto  life. 

But  how  was  he  so  eminently  fitted  thus  to 
preach?  His  first  and  most  important,  and,  in- 
deed, indispensable  qualification  for  this  work, 
was,  that  he  himself  knew  Christ.  He  had  not 
only  that  knowledge  which  is  attained  by  the 
studj^  of  the  Scriptures,  and  learning  what  is 
therein  revealed  concerning  the  person  and  work 
of  Christ,  but  that  knowledge  which  is  due  to 
the  inward  revelation  by  the  Spirit.  Paul  says 
that  it  pleased  God  to  reveal  his  Son  in  him,  that 
he  might  preach  him  among  the  Gentiles.  He 
does  not  refer  here  to  the  outward  manifestation 
of  Christ  which  arrested  him  on  his  way  to  Da- 


12  HE   PREACHED  CHRIST. 

raascus,  but  to  an  inward  revelation  therewith 
connected.  It  was  a  spiritual  illumination  by 
which  he  was  enabled  to  see  the  glor}^  of  God  in 
the  foce  of  Jesus  Christ.  One  glimpse  of  that 
glory  transformed  the  blaspheming  persecutor  into 
the  humble,  adoring,  devoted  servant  of  the 
Lord  Jesus.  It  was  such  a  revelation  that  made 
your  pastor  what  he  was.  Without  this,  all  his 
other  gifts  had  been  of  no  account. 

It  is,  however,  an  instructive  fact,  that  the 
apostle  who  labored,  suffered,  and  accomplished 
more  than  all  the  others,  was  the  one  most  richly 
endowed  with  natural  abilities  and  acquired 
knowledge.  When  these  gifts  are  relied  upon, 
and  especially  when  they  are  made  the  ground 
of  self-glorification,  they  are  like  the  fire  of 
thorns,  brilliant  and  noisy,  but  which  soon  goes 
out  in  darkness,  leaving  nothing  but  ashes  to  be 
scattered  b}'  the  wind.  But  when  their  possessor 
feels  as  Paul  felt,  that  he  is  nothing,  and  can  do 
nothing  ;  when  he  relies,  not  on  his  powers  of  per- 
suasion, but  solely  upon  the  demonstration  of  the 
Spirit,  then  God  condescends  to  use  them  for  his 
own  glory  and  for  the  edification  of  the  Churcli. 

The  Rev.  James  W.  Alexander  was  therefore 
what  he  was  as  a  preacher  of  Christ,  not  only  be- 
cause he  was  a  devout  worshipper  of  Christ,  but 
also  because  he  was  endowed  with  varied  natural 


HE   PREACHED   CHRIST. 


13 


gifts,  improved  by  along  process  of  culture  and 

discipline. 

He  was   born   March   13tb,  1804,  in   Louisa 
County,  Virginia,  in  the  house  of  his  maternal 
grandfather,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Waddel,  of  blessed 
memory,  by  whom  he  was  consecrated  to  God 
in  baptism.     His  father  was  the  late  Archibald 
Alexander,  D.D.,  the  representative  man  of  the 
Church  for  our  age  and  country,  to  whom  he  was 
largely  indebted  for  his  religious,  literary,  and 
the^ological  training.    After  enjoying  the  instruc- 
tions of  the  most  eminently  classical  teacher  of 
his  day,  for  some  years,  in  Philadelphia,  he  com- 
pleted his  academical  career  in  the  College  of 
New-Jersey,   in   the   year   1820.     He   was    ap- 
pointed  a    tutor   in   that   venerable    institution 
while  he  was  pursuing  his  studies  in  the  Theolo- 
logical  Seminary  at  Princeton.     In  1825  he  was 
licensed  to  preach  the  Gospel.     The  following 
year  he  became  the  pastor  of  the  church  at  Char- 
lotte Court  House,  Virginia— a  church  which  his 
venerated  father  had  previously  served,  and  to 
which  his  own  son  has  recently  been  called.     He 
was  forced  to  relinquish  that  charge  on  account 
of  the  failure  of  his  health,  and  in  1829  he  set- 
tled in  Trenton,  K.  J.,  as  pastor  of  the  First  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  that  city.     In  1833  he  was 
elected  Professor  of   Belles  Lettres  in  the  Col- 


14:  HE    PREACH KD   CHRIST. 

lege  at  Princeton.  lie  discharged  tlie  duties  of 
that  office  with  eminent  success  for  eleven  years. 
In  lS4:-\:  lie  became  the  pastor  of  the  Duane 
street  Church,  Kew-York,  whence  he  was  called 
by  the  General  Assembly  of  our  Church  to  fill 
the  chair  of  Ecclesiastical  History  and  Church 
Government  in  the  Theological  Seminary  at 
Princeton.  A  few  years'  experience  convinced 
him  that  the  sedentary  duties  of  a  professor  were 
not  suited  to  his  peculiar  constitution,  and  there- 
fore in  1851  he  accepted  the  charge  of  this 
church,  in  the  service  of  which  he  remained 
until  God  called  him  to  a  higher  service  in 
heaven. 

This  recital  is  sufficient  to  show  how  varied  and 
abundant  were  his  means  of  culture  and  expe- 
rience. He  never  filled  a  post  which  he  did  not 
adorn,  and  never  left  a  charge  that  the  peo])le 
did  not  mourn  over  his  departure  as  a  sad  be- 
reavement. He  has  died  in  the  rich  maturity  of 
his  years  and  usefulness,  leaving  behind  him  no 
superior,  and  few  if  au}^  equals  in  the  sphere  in 
which  he  acted.  The  labors  and  caies  of  the 
pastoral  oflice  over  such  a  church,  and  in  such  a 
city  as  this,  had  so  worn  on  his  sensitive  fi'ame, 
that  early  in  the  last  spring  he  was  obliged  to  in- 
termit his  services,  and  seek  the  renewal  of  his 
strength  among  the  mountains  of  his  native  State. 


HE   PREACHED  CHRIST.  15 

Every  tiling  promised  speedy  and  complete  re- 
covery. You  were  looking  forward  with  conti- 
dence  to  his  return  to  his  home  and  pulpit,  when 
the  sad  intelligence  reached  yon,  that  God  had 
otherwise  ordained.  A  few  days'  illness  from  an 
acute  disease  disappointed  all  your  hopes.  Early 
on  the  morning  of  the  last  Sabbath  of  July,  just 
as  the  first  rays  of  the  sun  gilded  the  tops  of  the 
surrounding  mountains,  the  glories  of  heaven 
broke  on  his  enraptured  gaze. 

Dr.  Alexander  united  in  himself  gifts  and 
graces  rarely  found  in  combination.  God  had 
endowed  him  with  a  retentive  memory  and  a 
perspicacious  intellect,  with  great  powder  of  ap- 
plication and  acquirement,  with  singular  delicacy 
of  taste,  with  a  musical  ear,  and  a  resonant 
voice.  These  gifts  were  all  cultivated  and  turned 
to  the  best  account.  Probably  no  minister  in 
our  Church  was  a  more  accomplished  scholar. 
He  was  familiar  with  English  literature  in  all 
periods  of  its  history.  lie  cultivated  the  Greek 
and  Latin,  French,  German,  Italian,  and  Spanish 
languages,  not  merely  as  a  philologist,  but  for 
the  treasures  of  knowledo;e  and  of  taste  which 
they  contain.  To  this  wide  compass  of  his 
studies  is  in  good  measure  to  be  referred  many 
of  his  characteristics  as  a  writer,  the  abundance 
of  his  literary  allusions,  his  curious  felicity  of  ex- 


16 


HE   PREACHED   CHRIST. 


pression,  and  tlie  variety  of  his  imagery.     Many 
of  his  productions   are  like  strings  of  pearls; 
each  sentence  complete  in  its  own  beauty,  and 
all  connected  by  an  invisible  thread.    His  iiicility 
of  production  was  wonderful.     He  would    often 
accomplish  in  days  what  few  men  could  accom- 
plish in  as  many  weeks.     He  used  his  pen  as  if 
it  were  a  living  member  of  his  body,  and  found 
a   positive   pleasure  in  its  exercise.     He  was  a 
frequent   contributor   to   literary   and   religious 
journals.     The  Princeton  lieview  is  indebted  to 
him  for  many  of  its  most  valuable  contributions, 
not  a  few  of  which  have  been  reprinted  both  in 
this  country  and  in  England.     Moi-e  than  thirty 
volumes  on  the  Catalogue  of  the  American  Sun- 
day-School Union  are  from  his  pen.     To  these 
are  to  be  added  his  more  elaborate  works,  long 
familiar  to  the  Christian  public  in  Great  Britain 
and  America. 

It  was,  however,  not  only  in  the  department 
of  literature  that  Dr.  Alexander  was  thus  distin- 
guished. He  was  an  erudite  theologian.  Few 
men  were  more  conversant  with  the  writings  of 
the  early  fathers,  or  more  familiar  with  Christian 
doctrine  in  all  its  phases.  He  embraced  the 
faith  of  the  Keformed  Churches  in  its  integrity 
with  a  strength  of  conviction  which  nothing 
but  the  accordance  of  that  system  with  his  rel^ 


HE    PREACHED   CHRIST.  17 

gious  experience  could  produce.  A  faith  founded 
on  argument  inaj  be  shaken  by  argument;  but 
a  conviction  of  truth  arising  from  reh'gious  ex- 
perience, that  is,  from  a  state  of  consciousness 
produced  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  is  not  to  be 
moved.  Theology  and  philosophy  are  so  related, 
that  devotion  to  the  former  involves  of  necessity 
the  cultivation  of  the  latter.  Dr.  Alexander 
was  therefore  at  home  in  the  whole  department 
of  philosophical  speculation.  His  last  publica- 
tion was  an  able  exposition  of  the  views  of  the 
metaphysicians  of  the  middle  ages  on  one  of  the 
most  important  questions  in  mental  science. 

Thus  richly  and  variously  was  your  beloved 
])astor  endowed.  These  gifts,  however,  were  but 
accomplishments.  Underneath  these  adornments, 
in  themselves  of  priceless  value,  was  the  man 
and  the  Christian.  lie  was  an  Israelite  without 
guile.  Probably  no  man  living  was  freer  from 
all  envy  and  jealousy,  from,  malice,  hypocrisy, 
and  evil-speaking.  ]^o  one  ever  heard  of  his 
saying  or  doing  an  miseemly  or  unkind  thing. 
The  associations  connected  with  his  name  in  the 
minds  of  all  who  knew  him,  are  of  things  true, 
just,  pure,  lovely,  and  of  good  report.  'No  one  can 
think  of  him  without  being  the  happier  and  the 
better  for  the  thou2rht.  He  was  a  delio^htful 
companion.     His  varied  knowledge,  his  humor, 


18  HE    PREACHED   CHRIST. 

his  singular  power  of  illustration  rendered  his 
conversation,  when  in  health  and  spirits,  a  per- 
petual feast.  Having  been  brought  early  in 
life  to  a  saving  knowledge  of  the  truth,  his  re- 
ligious knowledge  and  experience  were  profound 
and  extensive.  He  was  therefore  a  skillful  casuist, 
a  wise  counsellor,  and  abundantly  able  to  com- 
fort the  afflicted  with  the  consolation  wherewith 
he  himself  had  been  comforted  of  God.  He 
was  eminently  a  devout  man,  reverential  in  all 
his  acts  and  utterances,  full  of  faith  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost. 

The  pulpit  was  his  appropriate  sphere.  There 
all  his  gifts  and  graces,  all  his  acquirements  and 
experiences  found  full  scope.  Hence  the  re- 
markable variety  which  characterized  his  preach- 
ing ;  which  was  sometimes  doctrinal,  sometimes 
experimental,  sometimes  historical,  sometimes 
descriptive  or  graphic,  bringing  scriptural  scenes 
and  incidents  as  things  present  before  the  mind ; 
often  exegetical,  unfolding  the  meaning  of  the 
word  of  God  in  its  own  divine  form.  Hence, 
too,  the  vivacity  of  thought,  the  felicity  of  style, 
and  fertility  of  illustration  which  were  displayed 
in  all  his  sermons.  He  could  adapt  himself  to 
any  kind  of  audience.  When  a  Professor  in 
the  College,  he  acted  as  a  voluntary  pastor  of  an 
African  church  in  Princeton,  and  we  have  heard 


HE   PREACHED   CHRIST.  19 

him  say  that  he  regarded  the  sermons  which  he 
preached  to  that  congregation  the  best  he  ever 
delivered.  As  we  remarked  in  the  commence- 
ment of  this  discourse,  he  preached  Christ  in  a 
manner  which  seemed  to  many  altogether  pecu- 
liar. He  endeavored  to  turn  the  minds  of  men 
away  from  themselves,  and  to  lead  them  to  look 
only  unto  Jesus.  He  strove  to  convince  his 
hearers  that  the  work  of  salvation  had  been  ac- 
complished for  them,  and  was  not  to  be  done  by 
them  ;  that  their  duty  was  simply  to  acquiesce  in 
the  work  of  Christ,  assured  that  the  subjective 
work  of  sanctification  is  due  to  the  objective 
work  of  Christ,  as  appropriated  by  faith  and  ap- 
plied by  the  Holy  Ghost.  He  thus  endeavored 
to  cut  off  the  delays,  the  anxieties,  and  misgiv- 
ino;s  which  arise  from  watchino;  the  exercises  of 
our  own  minds,  seeking  in  what  we  inwardly  ex- 
perience a  warrant  for  accepting  wliat  is  out- 
wardly offered  to  the  chief  of  sinners,  without 
money  and  without  price.  He  w^as  eminently 
successful  in  his  ministry,  not  only  in  the  con- 
version of  sinners,  but  in  comforting  and  edifying 
believers.  The  great  charm  of  his  preaching, 
that  to  which  more  than  to  any  thing  else  its 
efficiency  is  to  be  referred,  was  his  power  over 
the  religious  affections.  He  not  only  instructed, 
encouraged,  and  strengthened  his  hearers,  but 


20  HE    PREACHED   CHRIST. 

he  bad,  to  a  remarkable  degree,  the  gift  of  call- 
iuo-  tbeir  devotional  feelino^s  into  exercise.  In 
bis  prayers  tbere  were  tbose  peculiar  intonations 
to  wbicb  the  Spirit  of  God  alone  can  attune  the 
human  voice,  and  at  the  sound  of  which  the 
gates  of  heaven  seem  to  unfold,  and  tlie  worship- 
pers above  and  the  worshippers  on  earth  mingle 
together,  prostrate  in  adoration.  Your  religious 
services,  under  bis  ministry,  were  truly  seasons 
of  devotion,  the  highest  form  of  enjoyment  vouch- 
safed to  men  on  earth.  The  man  who  can  give 
us  this  enjoyment,  who  can  thus  raise  our  hearts 
to  God,  and  bring  us  into  communion  with  our 
Saviour,  we  reverence  and  love.  This  is  a  power 
which  no  one  envies,  from  which  no  one  wishes 
to  detract,  which  surrounds  its  possessor  with  a 
sacred  halo,  attracting  all  eyes  and  offending 
none. 

Dr.  Alexander's  preeminence,  therefore,  was 
due  not  to  any  one  gift  alone  ;  not  to  bis  natural 
abilities,  to  his  varied  scholarship,  to  his  extensive 
theological  knowledge  and  religious  experience  ; 
not  to  bis  divine  unction,  or  to  bis  graces  of 
elocution.  It  was  the  combination  of  all  these 
which  made  him,  not  the  Urst  of  orators  to  bear 
on  rare  occasions,  but  the  first  of  preachers  to 
sit  under,  month  after  month  and  jear  after  year. 

Dr.  Alexander  was  a   man  of  sorrows.     Fre- 


HE    PREACHED    CHRIST.  21 

quent  family  bereavements,  repeated  attacks  of 
illness,  some  of  them  attended  bj  great  bodily 
agony,  a  shattered  nervous  constitution,  caused 
him  a  degree  of  suffering  protracted  through 
many  years,  known  fully  only  to  God  and  to  his 
own  heart.  xVs  he  entered  heaven,  a  voice  might 
be  heard  saying :  "  This  is  one  who  has  come  out 
of  great  tribulation,  and  has  washed  his  robes 
and  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb." 
The  death  of  such  a  man  is  an  irreparable  loss. 
God  indeed  will  raise  up  other  instruments  to 
carry  on  his  work,  but  no  one  can  ever  supply 
his  place  to  his  immediate  relatives,  to  his  life- 
long friends,  and  to  his  children  in  the  faith. 
They  all  must  carry  with  them  to  the  grave  a 
wound  which  knows  no  healing.  Such  sorrow, 
however,  is  not  like  the  sorrow  of  the  world, 
which  worketh  death.  It  is  the  tribute  which  we 
willingly  pay  to  those  we  love.  It  is  not  incon- 
sistent with  joy  and  gratitude  in  the  remembrance 
of  all  that  he  was  to  us  and  to  the  Church.  He 
was  one  of  the  blessed  of  the  Lord.  Blessed  in 
his  parentage,  in  his  early  conversion,  in  his 
abundant  gifts,  in  his  long-continued  and  emi- 
nent usefulness,  in  the  admiration,  love,  and  con- 
fidence of  the  people  of  God.  He  has  finished 
his  course,  he  kept  the  faith,  and  henceforth 
there  is  laid  up  for  him  a  crown  of  righteousness 


22  HE    PREACHED    CHRIST. 

which  the  Lord  the  righteous  Judge  will  give  him 
at  that  day. 

In  view  of  such  a  life  and  such  a  destiny, 
earthly  distinctions  sink  into  nothing.  No  man 
is  so  hardened,  that  he  would  not  a  thousand 
times  prefer  to  be  what  your  beloved  pastor  was 
and  is,  than  to  possess  all  of  wealth  and  power 
the  world  has  to  give. 

As  this  discourse  began  with  the  name  of 
Christ,  so  let  it  end.  The  worship  of  Christ  is 
our  religion ;  the  service  of  Christ  our  loyal 
duty  ;  and  the  enjoyment  of  Christ  is  our  heaven. 
The  sum  and  substance  of  the  preaching  ever 
heard  within  these  walls,  is,  that  Christ  is  the 
only  source  of  truth,  of  righteousness,  of  holiness, 
and  of  eternal  life,  so  that  we  are  complete  in 
him.  To  Him,  therefore,  be  honor  and  glory, 
might,  majesty,  and  dominion,  world  without 
end.     Amen. 


SERMON 


JOHN    HALL,    D.I) 


SERMON. 


"  Moreover,  I  will  endeavor  that  ye  may  be  able,  after  my  de- 
cease, to  haye  these  things  always  in  remembrance." — 2  Peter 
1  :  15. 

The  decease  of  a  minister  of  the  Gospel — of 
one  who,  as  well  as  the  writer  of  this  sentence, 
may  be  called  "  a  servant  and  an  apostle  of  Je- 
sus Christ" — is  an  event  of  the  most  solemn 
interest. 

It  is  such  to  the  minister  himself,  whilst  yet 
contemplated  by  him  in  anticipation :  for  he 
knows  that,  besides  his  own  personal  standing  at 
the  final  judgment,  he  is  bound  to  watch  for  the 
souls  of  others  as  one  that  must  give  account — 
and  this  with  joy  or  grief,  according,  not  only  as 
he  will  have  to  testify  respecting  those  to  whom 
he  has  ministered  the  Gospel,  but  as  lie  himself 
has  been  faithful  to  his  trust.  It  is  at  his  decease 
he  is  to  discover  whether  he  has  both  saved  him- 
2 


26  HAVE   THESE   THINGS 

self  and  them  that  lieard  him  ;  -whetlier  he  shall 
receive  from  the  Chief  Shepherd  a  crown  of 
glory  that  fadeth  not  away,  or  having  preached 
to  others  be  himself  a  castaway. 

His  own  decease  is  also  a  solemn  contempla- 
tion to  a  minister,  because  he  knows  that  his 
work  is  to  survive  him.  His  preacliing,  his  ex- 
ample, his  whole  influence,  are  not  as  transitory 
as  his  own  brief  life.  Neither  the  good  nor  the 
evil  of  his  course  will  be  buried  w^ith  liim.  His 
faithfulness  or  his  negligence  will  ])rimarily  af- 
fect those  whom  he  immediately  served,  but  the 
consequences  may  descend  through  that  genera- 
tion to  those  wdio  will  inherit  the  opinions  and 
the  spirit  of  their  fathers.  lie  may  leave  behind 
him  such  permanent  records  of  his  life  and  of  his 
sentiments,  that  successive  ages  will  reap  the 
benefit  or  the  injury,  as  effectually  as  if  they  had 
heard  his  voice,  or  been  familiar  with  his  com- 
pany. It  was  the  ambition — the  "  endeavor" — 
of  Paul,  so  long  as  he  was  "  in  this  tabernacle," 
so  to  present  the  glorious  doctrines  and  precepts 
of  the  Gospel,  what  he  in  the  text,  for  the  fifth 
time  in  the  cha])ter,  emphatically  calls  ''these 
things,"  that  believers,  consistently  with  their 
obligations  and  his  own,  might  be  able  after  his 
decease  to  have  them  always  in  remembrance. 

Thus  the  decease  of  a  minister  is  an  event  of 


ALWAYS   IN    KEMEMBRANCE.  27 

great  moment  also  to  the  Church  ;  and  this  in  pro- 
portion as  he  reached  them  bj  his  preaching,  his 
intercourse,  his  writings,  his  reputation,  his  per- 
sonal character.  In  all  these  respects  none  stand 
so  close  to  a  minister  as  the  people  whom  he  has 
most  directly  served  as  a  pastor  and  a  teacher. 
They  knew  liim  best.  They  loved  him  most. 
They  can  most  justly  appreciate  him.  They  saw 
him  ;  they  heard  him  ;  tiiey  read  him.  They 
remember  the  tones  of  his  voice,  the  expression 
of  his  countenance.  They  have  local,  sacred  as- 
sociations with  his  person  ;  he  is  recalled  to  them 
as  he  stood  in  the  pulpit,  as  he  poured  forth  his 
soul  in  prayer,  as  he  united  with  them  in  the 
songs  of  worship,  as  he  broke  to  them  with 
tremulous  emotion,  the  bread  of  the  Lord's  table, 
as  he  stretclied  his  hands  over  them  in  bene- 
diction, as  he  committed  their  children  to  God's 
covenant  in  baptism,  as  he  came  to  them  when 
tliey  were  in  trouble,  consoled  them  in  bereave- 
ment, soothed  them  in  sickness,  brought  them 
both  temporal  and  spiritual  relief  in  necessity, 
was  to  them,  in  all  circumstances,  not  merely  an 
official  or  professional  attendant,  but  a  sympa- 
thizing friend ;  and  above  all,  or  rather  in  con- 
nection with  all  else,  they  remember  how  in  pri- 
vate intercourse,  as  well  as  in  his  public  minis- 
trations,  he   sought   with   the   tenderness   of  a 


28  HAVE   THESE   THINGS 

brother  and  the  faithfulness  of  a  messenger  of 
Christ  Jesus,  to  awaken,  or  admonish,  or  comfort, 
or  instruct,  or  encourage,  or  guide ;  by  any 
means,  and  according  to  the  demands  of  each 
case,  to  bring  the  soul  to  the  Saviour,  to  the  word 
of  his  grace,  to  the  converting  and  sanctifying 
Spirit,  to  the  full  joy  and  peace  of  believing. 

Ah!  my  brethren,  have  I  touched  your  hearts 
as  this  outline  has  brouglit  before  you  the  image 
of  your  own  pastor  ? — our  own  beloved  Alexan- 
der? And  do  I  indeed  stand  here  to-day  to 
speak  of  his  '"  decease"  ? — to  call  to  your  "  remem- 
brance" the  things  he  has  said,  instead  of  hear- 
ing them  again  from  his  own  lips,  as  you  fondly 
hoped  to  do  this  very  day,  when,  in  a  manner  he 
so  gratefully  appreciated,  you  prevailed  upon 
liim  to  suspend  his  labors  that  he  might  recover 
strength  !  What  a  ditferent  occasion  this  from 
that  which  you  anticipated  I  How  little  you 
thought  when  you  closed  your  sanctuary  a  few 
weeks  ago,  tliat  when  you  sliould  enter  it  again, 
that  new  tablet  would  meet  your  eyes  !  But  the 
event  was  not  as  sui-prising  to  him  as  to  you.  I 
believe  that  when  he  set  out  on  his  journey  he 
was  disposed,  without  any  morbid  presentiment, 
to  say  :  "  And  now  behold  I  know  that  ye  all, 
among  whom  I  have  gone  preaching  the  king- 
dom of  God,  shall  see  my  face  no  more." 


ALWAYS   IX    REMEMBRANCE.  29 

Bat  in  the  midst  of  these  personal  sorrows,  let 
us  not  overlook  either  the  comforts  or  the  obli- 
gations that  remain.  Let  us  listen  again  to  the 
instructions  of  the  text,  that  the  influence  of  a 
faithful  minister  goes  beyond  his  decease,  and 
that,  on  the  part  of  his  people,  both  the  benefits 
and  responsibilities  of  their  sundered  relation 
continue.  If  ever  a  servant  and  apostle  of  Jesus 
Christ  labored  less  for  momentary  effect  and  per- 
sonal ends,  and  mere  lifetime  results,  than  to  lay 
such  foundations  as  would  cause  the  saving  truth 
to  be  had  in  remembrance  after  his  departure,  it 
was  he  whose  voice  lias  scarcely  ceased  to  echo 
in  this  house.  The  instructions  he  imparted  were 
so  weighty  as  to  be  worth  remem.brance,  and  so 
well  conveyed  as  to  defy  all  but  wilfal  forgetful- 
ness.  His  decease  has  not  arrested  his  sermons, 
his  visits,  his  counsels,  his  character.  Being 
dead,  he  yet  speaketh;  every  thing  recalls  him  ; 
and  vour  minds,  mv  brethren,  will  be  treacher- 
ous  to  the  tenderest  and  weightiest  impressions 
that  are  ever  directed  to  them,  if  they  do  not  re- 
member both  him  and  his  words.  He  did  not 
seek  yoar  applause  ;  he  did  not  labor  for  fame  ; 
he  did  not  graduate  his  love  and  care  for  you  by 
his  0W11  brief  years  ;  he  did  not  measure  the  ex- 
tent of  his  responsibility  by  the  ephemeral  judg- 
ment of  his  fellow-creatures:  it  was  the  perma- 


80  HAVE   THESE   THINGS 

iient,  eternal  result  as  to  himself  and  you,  that 
lie  kept  before  him.  And  so,  if  he  could  speak 
to  us  to-day,  he  would  not  ask  us  for  our  eulo- 
ix'ies  ;  he  would  not  be  intent  on  learnincc  tlie 
amount  of  our  admiration,  but  he  would  plead 
with  us  again  to  have  always  in  remembrance 
"these  things"  which  concern  life  and  salvation  ; 
or  as  Paul  elsewhere  says,  '•  By  which  ye  are 
saved,  if  ye  keep  in  memory  what  I  preached 
unto  you,"  (1  Cor.  15  ;)  or  as  the  Divine  Master 
himself  said,  after  his  resurrection,  to  his  disci- 
ples: "These  are  the  words  whicli  I  spake  unto 
von  while  I  was  vet  w^ith  you  .  .  .  and  ye  are 
witnesses  of  tliese  tilings."     (Luke  24.) 

Whatever  helped  to  make  a  minister  efiicient 
whilst  living,  will  contribute  to  enforce  and  pro- 
long his  influence  after  his  decease.  The  remem- 
brance of  the  truth  he  ministered  will  be  assisted 
by  the  remembrance  of  all  that  qualified  him  for 
his  usefulness  and  characterized  it;  by  all  that 
marked  him  as  desii^ned  and  authorized  to  be  an 
ambassador  of  Christ.  We  may  hope,  therefore, 
to  aid  the  practical  and  permanent  objects  before 
us  this  day  and  not  depart  from  their  legitimate 
connection  with  the  Lord's  day  and  the  Lord's 
house,  by  adverting  to  some  of  those  particulars  in 
which  we  may  discern  the  arrangements  f)f  Provid- 
ence to  qualify  our  deceased  brother  for  tlie  work 


ALWAYS   IN"    REMEMBRANCE.  31 

assigned  him,  and  which  were  completed  and 
crowned  in  his  ministry  with  this  cono:reo:ation. 

The  besrinnina-s  of  these  Providential  desio^ns 
are  to  be  traced  to  his  pious  ancestry,  and  above 
all,  to  his  iintnediate  parentage.  Inheriting  the 
Christian  birthright  through  both  lines  of  descent, 
grandson  of  the  country  pastor  whose  name  he 
bore,  and  whose  venerable  person  is  an  historical 
portrait  in  our  literature''"" — it  is  as  the  son  of 
Archibald  and  Janetta  Alexander,  that  we  of 
this  day  are  assured  that  it  was  his  lot  not  only 
to  be  baptized  in  the  name,  but  trained  in  the 
nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  It 
was  while  his  eminent  father  was  yet  President 
of  Hampden  Sidney  College,  that  this  son  was 
born,  (March  13,  1804,)  at  the  house  of  his  grand- 
father, Waddel,  in  Louisa  ;  but  he  was  only  in 
his  fourth  year  when  tlie  residence  of  the  fai^iily 
was  removed  to  Philadelphia,  (December,  1807,) 
and  he  w^as  not  nine  when  (July,  1812,)  they  re- 
moved to  Princeton,  upon  the  opening  of  the 
Theological  Seminary. 

The  love  for  his  native  southern  State  and  for 
the  city  of  his  childhood  in  the  Middle  States, 
lefc  marks  on  his  character  which  show^  that  these 
early  footsteps  of  his  life  had  their  influence  in 
expanding  his  patriotic  and  Christian  aifections 

*  Wirt's  British  Spy. 


32  HAVE  THESE   THINGS 

beyond  any  sectional  or  local  limits ;  a  quality 
of  indispensable  consequence  to  tlie  preparation 
for  a  ministry  whicli  is  to  know  no  man  after 
the  flesh,  and  to  be  governed  by  none  of  the  pre- 
judices or  fanaticisms  so  apt  to  grow  out  of  tlie 
associations  of  one's  continued  residence  in  the 
spot  of  his  nativity,  and  inexperience  in  tlie  actual 
condition  of  society  in  other  sections. 

His  education  in  the  College  of  ]N^ew-Jersey, 
in  the  close  association  of  his  family  with  the 
Tlieological  school,  and  the  comparatively  few 
students  of  its  flrst  years,  is  to  be  regarded  among 
the  preliminary  steps  of  the  3'outli  in  the  coui'se 
of  Divine  designation.  That  designation  was  as 
yet  concealed  ;  for  whilst  every  thing  in  the  lite- 
rary and  religious  life  around  him,  in  his  own 
dwelling  and  in  the  public  institutions  and  men 
which  give  fame  to  the  village,  was  as  favorable 
as  outward  circumstances  could  be  to  the  highest 
intellectual  excitement  and  the  earliest  religious 
impressions,  it  was  not  until  his  college  course 
was  closing,  that  he  became  thoroughly  awak- 
ened to  his  great  advantages  and  responsibilities 
in  either  respect.  I>ut  even  then,  he  was  only  in 
his  seventeenth  year.  At  that  period,  having 
been  graciously  brought  to  a  cle:ir  ap}>rehension 
of  his  spiritual  condition,  he  made  his  first  pub- 
lic profession  of  laith.    (April,  1821.) 


ALWAYS   IN   REMEMBRANCE.  83 

It  was  while  at  College  that  the  saving  change 
occurred  ;  and   the  language  of  a  letter  written 
some  time  afterward  strikingly  coincides  with  the 
sentiments    of   his   dying-bed,    when    he    says : 
"  There  can  not  certainly  be  on  earth  any  greater 
pleasure  than  to  see  without  doubt  one's  self  con- 
demned jnstly  by  God's  law,  and  at  the  same 
time  saved  freely  by  the  sovereign  mercy  of  God 
in  Christ.     The  satisfaction  which  I  then  felt  in 
committing  all  my  cares  and  concerns,  my  soul 
and  body  into  the  hands  of  a  Saviour  whose  infi- 
nitely lovely  character  I  then  saw,  I  never  expect 
to  receive  from  any  other  source."     How  similar 
in  sentiment  is  this  to  the  expression  of  his  last 
hours  !     "If  tlie  curtain  were  now  to  drop  and 
I  were  this  moment  ushered  into  the  presence  of 
my  Maker,  I  would  first  prostrate  myself  in  an 
nnutterable  sense  of  my  nothingness  and  guilt ; 
but  second!}',  I  would  look  np  to  my  Redeemer 
with    an    inexpressible    assurance  of   faith    and 
love." 

Immediately  after  his  graduation,  (August, 
1820,)  he  betook  himself  to  a  course  of  private 
study  of  the  subject  he  had  slighted  in  College. 
He  gave  two  years  to  this  object,  and  principally 
to  classical  reading,  before  entering  the  third 
class  of  the  Theological  school,  which  he  did  in 
the  autumn  of  1822  ;  taking  np  his  abode,  like 
9-:f 


34  HAVE   THESE   THINGS 

the  students  from  abroad,  in  the  edifice  itself. 
The  letters  of  his  years  in  the  Seminary  are  elo- 
(}uent  with  description  of  his  enjoyment  of  the 
studies  and  of  the  companionship  of  the  band  of 
congenial  minds,  with  whom  the  topics  of  the 
class-room  were  subjects  of  animated  discussion  in 
their  more  private  and  social  encounters.  Those 
unrestrained  communications  also  reveal  the  dis- 
cipline by  which  the  heart  of  the  future  preacher, 
pastor,  and  consoler,  was  learning  how  to  speak 
to  multitudes  from  the  resources  of  a  deep  per- 
sonal experience.  Even  in  that  early  period  of 
liis  life,  he  was  becoming  acquainted  with  the 
violent  and  sudden  alternations  to  which  his  del- 
icate tem])erament  continued  subject,  from  the 
highest  pitch  of  joyous  excitement  to  the  depths 
of  melancholy  and  indescribable  misery. 

Yes,  my  brethren,  it  is  a  somewhat  i)ainful,  yet 
in  all  respects  an  impressive  and  interesting  reflec- 
tion for  those  who  have  obtained  so  iriucli  relief, 
so  much  sympathy,  so  much  instruction  from  the 
tenderness  ofyour  late  pastor,  from  the  heart-reach- 
ing power  of  his  discourses,  his  conversations,  his 
whole  intercourse,  to  know  that  to  (jualifyhim  for 
this  service,  the  wise  and  gracious  foresight  of 
Almighty  God  saw  it  necessary  to  lead  his  disci- 
ple from  his  earliest  Christian  walk,  in  the  path 
of  some  of  the  most  poignant  and  overwhelming 


ALWAYS   IX    REMEMBRANCE.  35 

distresses    that   can    oppress    the   liiiman    soul. 
Ascribe  it  to  what  immediate  cause  we  may,  to 
delicate  or  disordered  nerves,  to  morbid  sensibil- 
ities, whether  physical  or  moral,  to  excessive  in- 
tellectual excitement,  to  preternatural  suscepti- 
bility to  the  extremes  of  enjoyment  and  suffering, 
we  know  from  the  result,  that  this  part  of  expe- 
rience familiar  to  him  in  a  greater  or  less  meas- 
ure from  his  youth  to  his  last  days,  was  the  means 
sanctified  to  the  production  and   maintenance  of 
that  depth,  fullness,  and  richness  of  his  spiritual 
traits,  which  laid  the  foundation  of  and  gave  the 
predominant  characteristics  and  direction  to  his 
piety  and  his  influence.     For  you — for  us  all — he 
thus  suffered  ;  through  these  sufferings  he  was 
borne  by  the  same  grace  which  meted  them  out, 
so  that  I  do  not  believe  that  the  Apostle  Paul 
could  sa}^  with  more   grateful  consciousness  than 
could  your  pastor :  "  Blessed  be  God,  even  the 
Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Father  of 
mercies,  and  the  God  of  all  comfort ;  who  com- 
forteth  us  in  all  our  tribulation,  tliat  we   may  be 
able  to  comfort   them  which  are   in  any  trouble, 
by  the  comfort  wherewith  we  ourselves  are  com- 
forted of  God.     For  as  the  sufferings  of  Christ 
abound  in  us,  so  our  consolation  also  aboundeth 
by  Christ.     And  whether  we  be  afflicted,  it  is  for 
your  consolation  and  salvation,  which  is  effectual 


36  HAVE   THESE   THINGS 

in  the  eudurin^^  of  the  same  sufferino^s  which  we 
also  suffer  ;  or  whether  we  be  comforted,  it  is  for 
your  consolation  and  salvation." 

Think  of  this  fact,  mj  brethren,  in  estimating 
both  what  it  cost  to  provide  you  with  such  a  Pas- 
tor as  you  have  had,  and  what  responsibility  you 
are  under  now — after  liis  decease — to  have  in 
your  remembrance  the  rich  fruits  of  such  a  pain- 
ful culture.  Tliese  were  among  the  signs  of  his 
calhng  to  the  disci  pi eship  and  apostleship  of  the 
cross.  He  bore  in  his  body  the  marks  of  the 
Lord  Jesus.  {Gal.  6.)  But  he  could  continue, 
till  the  close  of  his  suffering  life,  to  adopt,  as  he 
did  thirty-live  years  ago,  the  expressions  of  Mad- 
ame Guion's  hymn,  in  Cowper's  translation,  when, 
personifying  Sorrow,  it  says: 

*'  It  costs  me  no  regret  that  she 
TVho  followed  Christ  should  follow  me : 

And  though  where'er  slie  goes, 
Thorns  spring  spontaneous  at  her  feet, 
I  love  her — and  extract  a  sweet 

From  all  my  bitter  woesi" 

And  witli  equal  sincerity  he  appropriated  these 
otlier  lines  from  the  same  hands: 

"  Long  plunged  in  sorrow,  I  resign 
Mv  soul  to  that  dear  hand  of  thine, 

Without  reserve  or  fear ; 
That  han  i  shall  wipe  my  streaming  eyes, 
Or  into  smiles  of  glad  surprise, 

Transform  the  fallinsr  tear. 


ALWAYS   IN    REMEMBRAXCE.  oi 

"  My  soul's  possession  is  thy  love  ; 
In  eanli  beneath,  or  heaven  above 

I  have  no  other  store  : 
And  though  with  fervent  suit  I  pray, 
And  importune  thee  night  and  day, 
I  ask  thee  nothing  more." 

After  about  two  years'  industrious  application 
in  the  Seminary  he  took  advantage  of  an  unex- 
pected opening  for  the  improvement  of  himself 
simultaneously  in  learning  and  teaching,  by  his 
appointment  as  tutor  in  the  College,  first  of  ma- 
thematics, then  of  the  languages,  (1824:.)     This 
position  involved  him  in  many  petty  troubles  an- 
noying to   one  of  his  temperament,  but   as  he 
wrote'^at   the   time:    "I   need   to   be   buffeted 
about  a  little,  to  call  forth  what  little  energy  and 
firmness  I  may  possess."     Here  is  another  item, 
not  too  insignificant  to  be  regarded  in  the  work 
of  his  preparation  for  the  life  of  a  pastor ;  that 
of  counteracting  his  natural  tendency  to  shrink 
from  every  thing  like  authority  or  discipline  over 
others.     So  earnestly  did   he   apply  himself  to 
meet  the  demands  of  his  office,  that  he  gave  six 
and  a  half  hours  daily  to  his  own  private  studies 
besides  what  was  required  in  the  recitation-room. 
These  pursuits  were  not  lost  upon  the  discipline 
of  a  mind  preparing,  as  the  event  has  proved,  for 
the  logical,  clear,  precise  statements  and  argu- 
ments of  gospel  preaching,  and  its  defence  by  the 
pen,  in  a  style  so  truly  classical. 


38  HAVE   THESE   THINGS 

It  was  just  at  this  period,  too,  that  liis  personal 
Cliristian  experience  passed  tlirongli  such  a  taste, 
as  lie  said,  of  the  terrors  of  the  Lord,  that  ir 
seeme<l  to  him,  at  the  time,  as  if  he  had  known 
nothing  before  of  true  conversion.  But  now  he 
writes,  (July  10,  1824  :)  "  I  have  finally  been 
humbled  b}^  the  prostration  of  m}^  own  will, 
which  has  been  since  birth,  free  only  to  evil,  to 
the  point  of  entire  submission  to  God.  .  .  .  God 
has  in  mere}"  brought  me  to  a  view  of  my  utter 
impotence,  of  the  justice  of  the  law  which  would 
condemn  me  to  eternal  wrath,  and  of  my  being 
lielpless  in  the  hands  of  an  Almighty  avenger. 
Henceforth  my  single  aim  is  to  submit  myself  to 
God  as  an  instrument  in  his  hands  to  be  used  for 
what  he  chooses.  Death  would  be  a  release, 
should  it  come  this  instant;  and  except  to  do  God's 
work,  I  desire  not  to  breathe  another  moment." 

The  occupations  of  the  tutorship  did  not  inter- 
rupt his  theological  reading,  nor  prevent  his  giv- 
ing time  to  the  acquisition  of  several  modern 
languages,  natural  science  and  general  literature, 
lie  had  also  begun  to  employ  his  ])on  in  c<uiti-i- 
butions  to  a  variety  of  periodical  works,  religious 
and  literary.  Tims  his  skill  in  writing  and  his 
literary  accomplishments  were  providing  I'or  the 
grace,  polish  and  relinement  which  were  to  do  so 
much  to  commend  the  liighest  truth  to  masses  of 


ALWAYS   IN    REMEMBRANCE.  89 

liearers  and  readers.  It  is  curious  for  us  in  this 
connection  to  find  him  say  in  a  letter  of  Decem- 
ber, 1824::  "I  tried  my  abilities  at  preaching  the 
other  night  at  the  Preaching  Society  of  the  Semi- 
nary. It  was  the  first  regular  sermon  I  ever 
wrote."  Perhaps  it  will  not  seem  less  curious  to 
hear  him  say  some  months  later:  "  Nothing  to 
which  I  put  my  hand  ever  dissatisfied  me  so 
much  as  sermon-writing.  I  am  enough  chagrined 
after  every  effort  of  this  kind  to  throw  the  thing 
in  the  fire.  Whatever  complacency  I  ma}^  feel 
in  any  thing  else,  my  sermons  are  truly  mortify- 
ing  to  me." 

The  next  step  in  his  preparation  for  the  serv- 
ice to  which  the  divine  purpose  was  guiding  him, 
was  his  obtaining  the  practice  and  experience  of 
a  pastor,  in  the  comparatively  small  and  secluded 
bounds  of  a  country  congregation.  Having  been 
licensed  by  the  Presbytery  of  N"ew-Brunswick, 
(October  4,  1825,)  he  spent  some  months  in  Ma- 
ryland and  Virginia,  and  declining  a  call  to  be 
colleague  of  the  late  Dr.  Glendy,  in  Baltimore, 
he  was  ordained  by  the  Presbytery  of  Hanover, 
and  installed  over  the  church  in  Charlotte  Court 
House.    (March  3,  1827.) 

Short  as  was  the  term  of  this  engagement,  the 
young  minister  learned  valuable  lessons  in  active 
parochial  life,  and  in  the  practice  of  preaching 


40  HAVE  THESE  THINGS 

sermons  which  there  was  not  time  to  write.  Here, 
too,  he  underwent  the  salutary  discipline  of  a 
serious  illness,  which  compelled  him  to  return  to 
the  Xorth,  and  finally  to  resign  his  charge.  This 
made  an  interruption  of  a  year  in  his  capacity  for 
active  labor.  But  the  time  was  not  lost.  His 
faith  Jiad  a  stern  probation,  and  it  came  all  the 
stronger  prepared  for  future  trials,  for  a  more 
solemn,  earnest  treatment  of  the  work  of  life,  and 
for  a  more  sympathetic  intercourse  with  the  af- 
flicted. "  Death''  (this  was  his  testimony  at  the 
time)  "  has  been  viewed  by  me  as  a  precious  en- 
trance into  eternal  bliss." 

"When  he  resumed  his  public  services,  (Janua- 
ry, 1S29,)  it  was  as  pastor  of  what  was  then  the 
only  Presbyterian  congregation  in  Trenton,  Xew- 
Jersey.  There  he  continued  four  years — years, 
like  all  the  others  of  his  Christian  life,  marked 
by  the  most  industrious  and  varied  occupations, 
by  a  zealous  and  successful  ministry,  by  progres- 
sive spiritual  experience,  and  in  his  domestic  life 
by  the  blending  of  great  joys  with  great  afilic- 
tions.  During  this  period,  besides  his  stated  em- 
ployment as  a  pastor,  lie  had  the  editorial  care 
of  the  BlUical  litjyeriory^  and  was  the  largest 
contributor  to  its  pages.  He  was  then  also  em- 
ploved  in  that  series  of  writins^s  for  the  vouui' 
and   for  the  plans  which   specially   contemplate 


ALWAYS   IX  REMEMBRANCE.  41 

their  benefit,  which  gave  him,  for  the  rest  of  his 
life,  an  intimate  connection  with  the  American 
Sunday-School  Union.  This  predisposition  and 
its  cultivation  by  him,  deserve  to  be  remembered 
among  the  means  of  his  pastoral  efiiciency.  Tou 
know  how  he  loved  vour  children  ;  how  he  souo:ht 
to  do  them  good ;  what  anxieties  he  showed  for 
the  youth  of  this  congregation,  with  all  their 
privileges,  and  for  the  youth  of  this  city,  with  all 
their  exposures  and  destitutions.  You  know  how 
he  worked  and  pleaded  for  the  promotion  of  re- 
ligious instruction  and  early  piety  here,  and  for 
the  excitement  of  every  patriotic,  philanthropic, 
and  religious  motive  to  provide  for  the  universal 
extension  of  Christian  education.  IS^one  know 
better  than  the  children  and  the  young  men 
here,  how  he  loved  the  souls  of  j^outh,  ^^earned 
for  their  salvation  and  trembled  for  their  perils. 
This  object  always  gave  a  direction  to  his  labors, 
caused  him  to  simplify  his  presentation  of  truth, 
and  increased  the  tenderness  of  his  spirit  towards 
his  people  as  families. 

It  was  while  in  Trenton  that  he  tried  to  stir  up 
others  to  do  what  in  subsequent  years  he  himself 
did  so  well,  when  he  asks,  "  Could  not  a  series 
of  '  Letters  to  Working  Men'  be  put  in  some 
popular  journal,  commending  honest  labor,  as- 
sertino'  the  rio-hts  of  mechanics,  but  unveilino- 


42  HAVE   THESE  THINGS 

the  defonnitj  of  the  levelliii^i^  system  V  wliich 
he  apprehended  was  about  to  inflict  irreparable 
damage,  moral  as  well  as  political,  on  our  coun- 
try. This  was  the  germ  of  the  thoughts  and 
counsels  that  are  now  so  attractively  realized  in 
the  volumes  of  "The  American  Mechanic"  and 
*'  The  AYorking  Man."  It  was  while  at  Trenton 
that  he  was  for  some  time  employed  on  a  labor- 
ious commentary  on  the  Gospels,  intended  for 
Sunday-schools,  but  abandoned  on  finding  that 
another  hand  (the  Eev.  Mr.  Barnes)  had  under- 
taken a  similar  work.  His  pen  was  never  at 
rest.  In  prose  and  poetry,  in  books,  reviews,  and 
fugitive  pieces;  in  translations  from  the  Latin 
and  German  ;  in  copious  notes  on  his  reading, 
which  was  in  all  departments  of  knowledge ;  in 
sermons  and  letters,  his  manuscript  work  was 
already  portending  the  vast  bulk  it  attained. 
With  it  all  he  never  intermitted  the  daily  study 
of  the  Scriptureri  in  both  the  originals  ;  and  as 
he  generally  observed  a  metliodical  theological 
course  in  his  morning  discourses,  he  maintained 
through  the  week  a  continuous  systematic  study  of 
divinity.  His  theological  studies  were  at  all 
times  almost  purely  exegetical.  To  discover, 
by  original  research,  the  meaning  of  the  Bible, 
was  his  first  aim  ;  and  human  opinions  in  the 
shape  of  bodies  of  divinity,  or   commentaries, 


ALWAYS   IN   REMEMBRANCE.  43 

were  only  jiccepted  by  liim  as  auxiliary  to  his  in- 
dependent research.  The  Greek  Concordance 
was  his  great  Commentary.  His  favorite  re- 
ligious reading  was  Biography  and  Experimental 
Piety.  "  'No  works,"  he  observed,  "  have  ever 
given  me  healthier  impulses  in  my  religious 
course  than  those  of  the  En  owlish  Xonconformists 
of  the  seventeenth  century."  Tiie  type,  alike  of 
his  Theology  and  Piety,  is  indicated  by  this  al- 
lusion to  his  choice  books.  I  may  further  define, 
once  for  all,  what  I  believe  to  have  been  his  posi- 
tion to  the  last  on  these  points,  by  referring  to 
Eussell's  '  Letters  Practical  and  Consolatory,' 
published  in  Edinburgh  about  1S30,  and  of 
whicli  he  said  in  1S3J::  "  I  have  read  no  human 
production  which  comes  nearer  my  views  of 
Calvinism  :  it  is  theology  witliout  one  shred  of 
scholasticism  ;  orthodoxy  without  one  film  of 
mystification  ;  purity  without  one  knot  of  ecclesi- 
astical liarshness.''  This  opinion  of  a  work,  so 
unpretending  in  its  design,  is  eminently  demon- 
strative of  what  was  your  Pastor's  estimate  of  an 
experimental  above  a  merely  technical  theology, 
and  of  what  was  the  habit  of  his  mind  to  find  the 
strongest  attractions  of  the  Gospel,  in  its  charac- 
ter as  at  once  "  practical"  and  "  consolatory." 
All  this,  too,  with  the  full  erudition  and  power 
that  when  occasion  came,  showed  that  if  he  was 


4:4  HAVE   THESE   THINGS 

not  a  polemic  by  practice,  it  was  not  for  want  of 
the  requisite  ability. 

To  return  to  the  narrative  of  liis  course  in 
Trenton,  (which  may  also  be  taken  as  marking 
the  general  course  of  his  pastorates  afterwards,) 
I  remark  that  all  his  eno^asjements  were  not  at 
the  expense  of  his  more  immediate  duties  as  a 
pastor,  is  attested  by  the  congregation,  who  re- 
member his  punctual  and  earnest  exercises, 
whenever  his  healtli  did  not  arrest  them.  We 
may  learn  something  of  his  methods  and  dili- 
gence by  such  a  paragraph  as  this  in  a  letter  to  a 
friend  in  1S31 :  "  My  breast  is  quite  sore  with  the 
unintermitted  exertion  of  lungs  in  singing  and 
prayer  and  talking.  .  .  .  For  the  last  six 
evenings  I  have  attended  meetings  in  different 
precincts.  Last  Sunday  afternoon  I  preached  to 
tlie  convicts  in  the  State's  prison.  I  think  1 
never  felt  more  the  unspeakable  privilege  of 
preaching  tlie  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ. 
Last  week  I  conversed  with  tliose  who  are  in  the 
cells.  ...  I  have  made  some  fruitless  at- 
tempts to  have  a  Bible-class  among  the  blacks.  .  .  . 
Since  I  lived  in  Virginia  I  feel  a  peculiar  yearn- 
ing over  these  poor  creatures,  and  sometimes  feel 
as  if  I  could  joyfully  devote  myself  to  laboring 
among  them." 

It  is  twenty-eight  years  since  the  social  meet- 


ALWAYS   IN   EEMEMBRANCE.  45 

ings  referred  to  in  tliis  passage  were  held,  but 
within  a  week  I  liave  heard  one  of  the  many, 
who  will  ever  remember  him  as  their  father  in 
Christ,  say,  in  the  recollection  of  those  occasions  : 
"  Oh  !  how  he  nsed  to  sing  !  I  can  novr  hear  his 
clear,  loud  voice  leading  the  hymn  : 

'  Hearts  of  stone,  relent !  relent !'  " 

In  a  letter  of  a  later  date  than  the  one  I  have 
just  quoted,  alluding  to  his  having  declined  an 
invitation  to  preach  for  a  vacant  congregation  in 
one  of  the  largest  cities,  he  says  :  "  If  I  am  to  be 
a  pastor,  and  nothing  but  necessity  could  make 
nie  willing  to  be  any  thing  else,  I  believe  I  have 
more  openings  to  serve  Christ  here  than  in  any 
more  laborious  charge.  I  have  counted  up  about 
fifty  persons  with  whom  I  have  had  religions  con- 
versation, and  who  are  more  or  less  tender.  I 
have  an  access  to  them  which  no  other  person 
could  have  for  a  long  time,  and  which  I  should 
not  have  to  the  same  number  elsewhere."  You 
\v\l\  recognize  in  another  sentence  a  peculiarity 
of  your  deceased  pastor  which  was  as  marked  in 
his  latest  as  in  his  earliest  years  of  pastoral 
connection.  "  Some  of  my  most  delightful  hours 
have  been  spent  in  sick-rooms,  by  dying-beds, 
or  among  poor,  unlettered  believers,  or  especi- 
ally in  rejoicing  with  them  that  do  rejoice  for 


46  HAVE   THESE    THINGS 

the  tirst  time  in  Christ."  Yet,  lie  who  had  such 
a  lieart  in  his  work,  who  was  doing  so  much  in 
spite  of  a  feeble  constitution,  and  had  such  testi- 
monies to  his  efficiency,  was  aspiring  to  perform 
so  much  more  than  he  could  do,  and  was  so  im- 
patient to  see  the  awakening  of  all  the  souls  about 
him,  that  he  was  constantly  bewailing  his  lack 
of  love  for  souls,  the  unprotitableness  of  his  min- 
istry, and  his  insignificance  as  a  Christian  work- 
man :  shrinking,  as  it  were,  into  obscurity,  from 
which,  never  his  own  seeking — only  a  compulsory 
Providence  dislodged  him. 

By  these  experiences  his  soul  w^as  attaining  to 
deeper  humility,  his  affections  to  greater  tender- 
ness, his  zeal  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  rising 
and  expanding  with  his  labors.  Forget  not,  my 
brethren,  as  we  thus  follow  his  path,  the  main 
design  of  our  undertaking — to  keep  you  in  mind 
of  what  is  to  grow  out  of  all  this  training  for  his 
best  days  in  your  service,  and  to  be  had  in  re- 
membrance by  your  souls,  now  after  his  decease, 
as  you  will  have  to  answer  at  the  great  day. 

And  the  spiritual  mind,  as  is  so  common  in  the 
ways  of  Providence,  was  still  nurtured  by  pain- 
ful trials.  It  was  at  this  period  of  his  life  that 
he  received  from  the  Lord  that  most  precious  of 
his  domestic  blessings  which  was  so  graciously 
spared  to  him  to  the  last — his  happy  marriage — 


ALWAYS    IN    EEMEMBRANCE.  47 

but  it  was  now  also  that  sorrowful,  often  agoniz- 
ing, years  were  laid  to  his  lot  in  the  sulierings 
and  death  of  children — an  anguish  to  which  no 
parental  heart  could  be  more  sensitive  than  his. 
"How  it  is  with  others,"  he  remarked,  "I  can 
not  tell ;  but  it  seems  to  me  that  I  need  a  con- 
stant series  of  inward  or  outward  conflicts  to 
make  me  value  Divine  comforts." 

To  the  trials  and  the  training  of  that  day  must 
be  added  those  which  a  temper  so  peaceful  and 
charitable  as  his  suffered,  not  so  much  from  the 
merits  of  the  polemical  controversy  which  then 
arose  in  our  Church,  and  afterwards  divided  it, 
as  from  the  spirit  with  which  it  was  too  often 
waged  ;  so  that  he  was  sometimes  constrained  to 
exclaim  :  ''  The  greatest  heresy  is  want  of  love." 
"  Oh  !  for  a  cycle  of  peace,"  he  exclaimed  ;  "  Oh  ! 
for  a  breathing-spell  from  these  unnatural  con- 
tentions !  I  feel  as  if  I  could  join  with  any  who 
would  humbly  unite  in  direct  and  kind  efforts  to 
save  sinners  and  relieve  human  misery.  Can  not 
a  poor  believer  go  along  in  his  pilgrimage  hea- 
venward, without  being  always  on  military  duty  ? 
At  judgment,  I  heartily  believe,  that  some  here- 
sies of  heart  and  temper  will  be  charged  as  worse 
than  heavy  doctrinal  errors.  To  you  (he  adds 
to  his  correspondent)  I  may  say  this,  because  you 
understand  me  as  holding,  not  merely  that  the 


48  HAVE   THESE   THINGS 

tenets  of  our  Church  are  true,  but  that  they  are 
very  important.  But  I  see  how  easy  it  is  to 
*  hold  the  truth  '  in  rancor  and  liate,  which  is 
the  grand  error  of  depraved  human  nature." 
These  few  lines  may  be  taken  as  exhibiting  the 
moral  position  which  he  occupied  throughout  the 
conflict  of  that  day  ;  and  this  is  sutficient  for  the 
lio-lit  in  which  we  are  now  viewins^  him.  It  is 
more  to  my  purpose  to  remark,  that  if  he  learned 
more  than  ever  before  of  the  spiritual  evil  of  pre- 
judice, uncharitableness,  bigotry — more  of  the 
weakness  of  good  men  under  the  excitement  of 
the  best  motives — more  of  the  evils  of  strife  and 
contention — more  of  the  importance  of  the  mind's 
beinix  well  c^rounded  in  sound  doctrine  as  to  all 
essential  truth,  and  the  heart  at  the  same  time 
moulded  to  the  love  and  charity  of  the  Gospel, 
then  his  own  painful  exercises  during  that  crisis 
were  parts  of  his  discipline  for  the  defence  and 
exemplification  of  that  meekness  and  forbearance 
towards  all  who  love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in 
sincerity,  which  marked  his  intercourse,  in  the 
larsfe  field  of  this  citv,  withevanij^elical  ministers 
and  Christians  of  every  name,  and  his  sympathy 
with  every  project  which  his  judgment  approved, 
where  co-workers  of  all  such  denominations  were 
combined.  How  truly  catholic  was  his  spirit 
was  shown,  not  in  the  declamations  of  the  public 


ALWAYS   IN    REMEMBRANCE.  49 

platform,  nor  perhaps  in  making  what  is  called 
the  union  principle  a  point  of  zeal  as  always  the 
best  system  of  doing  good,  so  much  as  in  his 
freedom  as  an  ecclesiastic  from  prejudice  and 
envy,  and  more  especially  in  his  love  of  holding 
fellowship  with,  and  deriving  instruction  from, 
the  unlimited  host  of  good  men  and  practical  and 
devotional  writers  of  all  ages  and  connections. 
Wherever  there  was  warmth,  earnestness,  sim- 
plicity— wherever  there  was  the  spirit  of  Christ, 
there  was  his  heart  and  liand,  and  I  mav  em- 
phatically  add,  his  voice  ;  singing  with  Wesley, 
or  Luther,  or  Gerhardt,  or  even  from  the  Brevi- 
ary, as  fervently  as  with  Toplady  or  Watts  ;  and 
literally  praying  "  with  all  prayer  and  supplica- 
tion," W'herever,  in  old  time  or  in  late,  in  written 
form  or  in  the  gush  of  the  rudest  unpremedita- 
tion,  he  found  disciples  whom  Jesus  had  taught 
how  to  pray. 

It  was  the  fruit  of  this  enlarged  and  compre- 
hensive spirit  of  Charity  that  we  are  called  upon 
to  have  in  remembrance  now,  after  his  decease, 
for  our  own  following,  as  he  in  it  so  followed 
Christ.  You  have  seen  how  this  spirit  won  his 
way  among  all  Christian  people,  gained  their  con- 
fidence, disarmed  sectarian  mistrust  in  hearing  or 
reading  him,  and  thus  multiplied  the  immber  of 
those  who  will  ever  bless  God  for  such  a  minis- 

8 


50  HA-VE  THESE  THINGS 

ter  and  author.  In  his  practice  he  gave  great 
weight  to  the  axiom  :  "  Tlie  servant  of  the  Lord 
must  not  strive,  but  be  gentle  unto  all  men  .  .  . 
patient :  in  meekness  instructing  those  that  op- 
pose themselves."  (2  Tim.  2.)  And,  therefore, 
he  would  say  even  of  those  whose  religion  was 
most  antagonistic  to  his  own  :  "  If,  instead  of  re- 
viling the  Catholics,  we  would  surpass  them  in 
schools,  in  personal  cliarities,  in  persevering  mis- 
sions, and  in  the  preparation  of  our  ministers,  I 
believe  we  should  make  more  head  against  them." 
Discouraging  or  refusing  applications  from 
other  quarters  of  much  more  prominence,  your 
Pastor  remained  in  Trenton,  until  his  declining 
health  demanded  a  suspension  of  pastoral  cares  ; 
and  after  some  hesitation  betvv^een  his  appoint- 
ment as  a  Secretary  of  his  favorite  institution, 
the  Sunday-School  Union,  and  the  offer  of  the 
editorial  charge  of  The  Presbyterian^  in  Phila- 
delphia, he  chose  the  latter,  (1833.)  This  post 
gave  him  a  few  months  of  more  direct  experience 
in  the  general  interests  of  the  Church,  and  of  the 
wide-spread  and  multifarious  observation  which 
a  religious  journalist  must  exercise.  But  he 
thouglit  that  a  less  vexatious,  and  more  retired 
department  would  be  better  suited  to  his  taste 
and  circumstances ;  and  therefore,  in  the  course 
of  the  lirst  year  of  his  occupation  as  an  editor. 


ALWAYS   IN   REMEMBRANCE.  51 

lie  consented  to  take  the  chair  of  Rhetoric  and 
Belles  Lettres,  in  his  own  beloved  College. 

The  eleven  years  (1833-1811)  which  were  then 
passed  in  Princeton,  though  they  were  withdrawn 
from  the  more  direct  work  of  the  ministry,  and 
this  solely  on  account  of  the  infirmities  of  his 
health,  were  not  absorbed  in  his  literary  oflice, 
or  lost  to  the  higher  interests  of  the  Church,  or 
to  his  prospective  position  in  it.  His  corre- 
spondence, throughout  that  period,  has  less  of  the 
tone  of  the  mere  scholar  or  professor,  than  of  a 
minister  who,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  was 
seeking  to  spread  divine  knowledge  and  to  save 
souls.  Submitting  patiently  to  the  Providential 
suspension  of  his  employment  as  a  Pastor,  and 
doing  all  that  industry  could  do  for  the  faithful 
discharge  of  his  duties  as  an  instructor,  yet  one 
wdio  did  not  know  his  professional  position,  would 
conclude  from  his  letters,  that  he  was  in  the  cen- 
tre of  weighty  and  immediate  responsibilities  for 
multitudes.  His  mind  labored  with  schemes  for 
the  diffusion  of  healthful  and  conservative  influ- 
ences throughout  all  classes  of  society.  The 
threatenings  of  infidelity  and  social  disorgani- 
zation, aroused  his  anxious  efforts  to  interpose  the 
Bible  and  Christianity  as  the  only  effectual  anti- 
dote. His  main  hopes  rested  in  the  making  of 
Holy  Scripture  the  great  organ  of  mental  and 


52  HAVE  THESE  THINGS 

spiritual  development  in  education.  And  this, 
as  usual  with  him,  was  a  practical  opinion.  He 
was  all  the  time  working  in  that  field :  writing 
for  children,  for  vounor  men,  for  Sandav-schools  ; 
and  his  publications  of  every  sort  will  be  found 
marked  with  that  strong  impress  of  his  theory, 
itself  derived  from  revelation,  (for  he  never  was 
a  schemer,  I  that  drauglits,  pure,  direct,  and  con- 
stant, from  the  fountain  of  inspired  truth,  are  the 
most  salutary  and  only  sufficient  remedy  for  the 
evils  of  the  times.  To  this  great  result  were  the 
incessant  productions  of  his  pen  addressed,  from 
the  series  of  miniature  toy-books  for  infants,  and 
the  Sunday-school  ''Introduction  to  the  Scrip- 
tures,** to  such  profound  dissertations  as  the  paper 
on  ''Transcendentalism,'*  in  the  Rejjertory.  the 
joint  production  of  himself  and  the  late  Professor 
Dod,  the  force  and  ability  of  which  have  made  it 
celebrated  as  an  Evangelical  weapon,  as  well  as 
an  exploit  in  the  field  of  metaphysics.  Besides 
the  frequent  assistance  given,  during  his  profes- 
sorship, to  his  brethren  in  their  pulpits,  he  stat- 
edly supplied,  for  seven  years,  the  colored  con- 
gregation of  Princeton,  thus  putting  himself  into 
contact  with  a  class  of  persons  whose  circum- 
stances made  his  ministry  among  them  a  school 
to  himself  of  the  simplicity,  so  important  for 
every  class,  but  so  liable  to  be  forgotten,  if  not 
despised,  by  the  scholar. 


ALWAYS    IN"  [remembrance.  53 

Who  can  fail  to  see  in  this  portion  of  his  life 
the  Providential  orderinor  of  circumstances  to 
strengthen  and  expand  his  philanthropy,  and  at 
the  same  time  to  qualify  him  for  his  own  active 
exercise  of  it,  on  a  larger  field,  and  for  its  more 
practical  inculcation  on  others  ?  Have  the  young 
men  of  this  congregation,  and  of  this  city,  and  I 
might  include  in  the  address  the  young  men 
every  where  who  have  caught  the  spirit  of  his 
writings,  reflected  that  he  who  threw  so  much 
energy  and  love  into  their  special  service,  was 
placed  by  the  hand  of  Providence — by  a  dispen- 
sation that  seemed  at  the  time  disastrous — in 
daily  intercourse  with  scores  of  young  men,  far 
from  their  homes,  as  their  teacher,  as  the  ob- 
server of  their  minds,  dispositions,  weaknesses, 
dangers,  their  good  points  and  their  bad,  to  raise 
his  qualifications  to  the  maturity  of  which  it  was 
to  be  your  privilege  to  reap  the  fruits  ?  And  will 
you  not,  in  the  remembrance  of  these  things, 
after  his  decease,  feel,  that,  not  as  a  compliment 
to  his  memory,  not  merely  as  a  tribute  of  your 
pei-sonal  gratitude,  but  out  of  most  solemn  recog- 
nition of  the  hand  of  God  in  the  whole  career  of 
your  departed  friend  and  Pastor,  preceding 
the  bringing  of  his  full  and  ripe  mind  to  your 
service — will  you  not  feel  that  to  forget  this  now, 
to  neglect  it  because  he  has  gone,  to  do  any 


Oi  HAVE  THESE  THINGS 

thinor  but  strive  the  more  earnestly  to  hold  fast 
and  improve  what  you  have  received,  will  be  a 
raonrnful,  a  perilous  slight  pat  upon  himself,  and 
above  all,  upon  the  grace  of  God,  which  ex- 
pended so  much  to  make  him  what  he  was  to 
you  ( 

In  the  Divine  purposes,  fifty-five  years  were  as- 
signed for  the  life-time  of  this  his  servant.  Forty 
of  these  had  now  passed  in  one  steady  progress 
of  development  to  the  maturity  of  character  and 
of  capacity,  and  at  least  half  of  that  term  in  act- 
ive usefulness.  Fifteen — only  fifteen — remained. 
1  et  even  fifteen  years  is  a  long  space  in  human 
life.  Ions:  enouorh  when  it  is  all  industriously 
consecrated,  and  under  favorable  circumstances, 
to  make  impressions  of  which  centuries  shall  not 
see  the  end.  Luther,  though  he  died  at  sixtv- 
three,  did  his  predestined  work  in  fifteen  years. 

And  where  were  the  qualifications,  whose  pro- 
jrress  we  have  been  indicatingr.  so  likely  to  find  a 
theatre  for  their  most  complete  and  permanent 
inflnence,  as  in  this  metropolis  i  AVhat  circum- 
stances could  be  more  favorable  for  converging 
the  various  kinds  of  talents,  acquirements,  habits, 
associations,  and  experience,  which  had  been 
combined  in  the  whole  preceding  career,  than 
those  which  brought  him  to  the  Duane  street 
conorrefiration  in  1S44 — and  then,  after  the  neces- 


ALWAYS   IX    REMEMBRANCE.  55 

sary  interval  of  rest,  furnished  by  liis  two  years' 
retirement  to  the  chair  in  the  Theological  Semi- 
nary at  Princeton,  (lSi9-lS51,)  and  an  exhila- 
rating voyage  to  Europe,  restored  him  to  his 
pastoral  work  here,  in  1851  ?  These  and  sub- 
sequent interruptions  of  his  employment  as 
Pastor,  let  me  here  say,  were  submitted  to  by 
him  as  sacrifices,  and  only  in  obedience  to  the 
duty  of  preserving  his  life.  When  elected  to  the 
Seminary,  in  181:9,  he  spok«  of  '•  the  anguish  of 
a  separation  from  my  charge,  if  I  accept ;"  and 
said:  ''To  liioic  that  I  might  remain  here,  [in 
Duane  street,]  would  be  a  joy  unspeakable.  Xo 
dreams  of  mine  respecting  the  social  happiness 
of  the  pastoral  relation,  have  failed  to  be  realized." 
He  wrote  at  the  same  crisis:  "I  have  seen  that  my 
powers  were  tasked  to  a  tension  which  must  soon  be 
fatal:  while  in  the  steadier  routine  of  teaching,  I 
might  last  a  season  with  ordinary  favor  of  Provi- 
dence.'' I  quote  this  to  show  how  peremptory  was 
the  necessity  of  his  having  relaxation  at  the  time, 
and  how  graciously  a  door  was  opened,  which  at 
once  gave  him  relief,  supplied  an  important  sta- 
tion for  the  benefit  of  the  Church  at  large,  added 
to  his  learninor,  revived  his  interest  in  the  risino^ 
ministry,  and  prepared  him  to  return  to  the  city, 
and  give  the  last  eight  years  of  his  strength  and 
life  to  the  o:reat  work  reserved  for  him  here. 


56  HAVE   THESE   THINGS 

I  deliberately  pronounce  it  a  great  work,  and 
great  not  only  in  the  scheme  of  it,  but  in  its  ac- 
complishment. For  when  we  take  into  consider- 
ation what  it  was  to  form  a  new  congregation  here; 
to  till  this  spacious'  edifice  ;  to  gather  a  band  of 
seven  hundred  communicants ;  to  form  and 
maintain  a  successful  Mission  church  ;  to  attract 
and  keep  a  large  bod}^  of  young  men  ;  to  not 
merely  win  the  acceptance,  but  engage  the  co- 
operation of  so  many,  of  every  age,  in  his  enter- 
prises of  doing  good  ;  to  enlist  so  mucli  zeal,  and 
to  draw  out  so  much  liberality  ;  to  satisfy  such  a 
miscellaneous  multitude  of  hearers ;  to  establish 
a  name  and  influence  outside  of  his  own  people, 
and  acknowledged  by  the  community  of  all 
classes  and  denominations — I  say,  this,  that  by 
the  favor  of  God  he  accomplished,  was  a  great 
work,  in  a  little  time.  These  walls,  this  registry 
of  communicants  and  pew-holders,  would  not  de- 
fine the  limits  of  your  Pastor's  zeal,  or  of  his  suc- 
cess. His  soul  suffered  at  the  sight  of  the  desti- 
tutions, bodily,  social,  and  spiritual,  of  the  large 
population  of  this  city,  and  was  always  j^raying 
to  know  what  he  should  do  for  them,  and  sigh- 
ing that  so  little  seemed  practicable.  Willingly 
would  he  have  thrown  open  all  these  seats  for 
the  ])oor.  He  longed  to  see  the  day  when 
churches  should  be  as  free  as  the  parks  or  the 


ALWAYS   IN    REMEMBRANCE.  57 

streets  to  all  who  would  come  in.  Never  was  he 
more  animated  than  when  originating  or  assisting 
some  method  of  reaching  the  ignorant,  degraded, 
neglected.  His  philanthropy  was  more  than  a 
lament,  a  prayer,  a  whine,  a  pulpit  theory,  an 
anniversary  oration,  a  newspaper  rhapsody.  He 
not  only  talked,  but  acted,  and  not  only  acted, 
but  loved  to  act ;  was  not  only  skillful  in  direct- 
ing the  benevolence  of  others,  but  was  himself 
benevolent,  and  often  did  the  part  of  benevolence 
which  is  far  more  laborious  and  self-denying  than 
that  which  is  accomplished  by  mere  giving — 
though  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  his  own 
personal  unpublished  charities  were  fully  equal, 
accordino^  to  the  scale  of  means,  to  what  his  in- 
fluence  obtained  from  others. 

In  estimating  his  work  in  this  city,  what  might 
I  not  say  of  the  effect  of  his  personal  character, 
and  that,  too,  as  one  of  the  products  of  Divine 
grace  that  qualified  him  for  his  position  ?  How 
could  so  much  of  talents  and  individual  influence 
have  been  seen  connected  with  so  much  of  simpli- 
city, modesty,  and  spiritual  affections,  and  not 
have  made  a  constant  impression  in  favor  of  his 
preaching  ?  A  minister  of  the  Gospel  ma}^  be 
worldly,  may  be  ambitious,  may  be  covetous, 
may  be  luxurious,  may  be  indolent.  These  are 
the   temptations  of  a  large  city  to  ministers  as 

a* 


58  HAVE   THESE   THINGS 

well  as  to  other  men.  But  perhaps  the  gracious 
end  of  your  Pastor's  afflictions  was  in  no  respect 
more  marked  than  in  the  influence  they  had  in 
keeping  him,  with  all  the  refinement  of  his  tastes, 
and  all  his  qualifications  for  literary  and  social 
life,  so  content  with  domestic  retirement  and  the 
plodding  routine  of  his  parochial  work,  so  con- 
scientious and  self-denyino^  as  to  every  thinix 
dangerous  or  doubtful,  so  blameless  and  with 
such  a  good  report  of  those  who  are  '■  without." 
No  American  ever  visited  Europe  with  more  ca- 
pacity to  relish  its  natural  scenery,  its  historical 
associations,  its  seats  of  learning  and  repositories 
of  the  fine  arts,  its  high  refinement  and  culture  ; 
but  both  his  voyages  were  submitted  to  as  un- 
welcome but  unavoidable  separations  from  his 
ministry  ;  and  in  the  language  of  one  of  his  trans- 
Atlantic  letters,  (June,  1857,)  he  could  honestly 
say,  "  After  all,  I  would  a  thousandfold  rather  be 
at  home  !"  and  lie  meant  his  ecclesiastical  home, 
his  parish,  more  than  his  domicile,  for  his  fiimily 
were  with  him.  Xo  scholar,  more  than  he,  en- 
joyed the  employments  of  literature,  but  I  be- 
lieve he  could  always  say,  as  he  did  when  occu- 
pying a  professor's  chair  in  the  College,  and  at 
the  same  time  preaching  for  the  blacks  once  a 
week :  "  I  believe  my  happiest  hours  are  spent 
on  Sunday  afternoons,  in  laboring  among  my 
little  charge." 


ALWAYS  IN   KEMEMBRANCE.  59 

His  personal  piety  had  such  prominent  features 
that  no  observer  could  do  otherwise  than  take 
knowledge  of  its  depth  and  uniformity.  AVhat 
habitual  reverence !  what  eno^ao-edness  in  wor- 
ship  !  wdiat  hearty  intentness  in  every  public  ex- 
ercise !  making  every  one  feel  that  he  w^as  acting 
not  with  the  perfunctory  solemnity  of  a  sacred 
office,  but  with  the  personal  sincerity  of  one  who 
felt  himself  to  be  a  sinner,  yet  a  rejoicing  believer 
and  a  happy  worshipper.  How  the  words  of 
Scripture  seemed  to  take  the  tone  of  his  own  ex- 
perience !  how  the  pathos  of  his  prayers  showed 
that  it  was  his  own  soul,  as  well  as  yours,  he  was 
lifting  up  to  God  in  confession,  praise,  and  sup- 
plication !  And  who  that  has  heard  him,  espe- 
cially  in  more  social  assemblies  or  in  tlie  worship 
at  his  own  fireside,  or  in  the  room  of  sickness 
and  the  house  of  affliction,  does  not  remember 
how  his  deep  absorption  in  devotion  and  tlie 
filial,  affectionate  nearness  of  his  access  to  the 
Father  of  mercies  and  God  of  all  comfort,  caused 
him  to  forget  what  may  be  called  the  conven- 
tionalities of  prayer,  and  to  pour  out  his  soul,  in- 
deed with  the  most  abased  humility  and  pro- 
found adoration,  yet  with  a  directness,  familiar- 
ity, minuteness,  freedom  of  expression,  ^vhich  was 
like  the  interviews  of  the  patriarchs  with  the 
Lord  God,  "  face  to  face  as  a  man  speaketh  unto 


60  HAVE   THESE   THINGS 

his  friend,"  (Ex.  33,)  or  like  those  of  the  apostle 
who  leaned  on  his  Lord's  bosom  at  the  holy  ta- 
ble. 

In  fact,  this  was  the  secret  of  the  confidence 
he  inspired,  the  affection  he  won,  namely,  the 
assurance  which  all  felt  that  he  was  what  he 
seemed,  that  he  experienced  what  he  declared, 
that  he  exemplified  what  he  taught.  It  was  his 
personal  piety,  and  its  abundant  fruits  that 
wrought  conviction  upon  every  mind  that  ob- 
served him,  that  his  "  rejoicing"  might  be  that 
of  the  apostle.  "  The  testimony  of  his  conscience 
that  in  simplicity  and  godly  sincerity,  not  with 
fleshly  wisdom,  but  by  the  grace  of  God,  he  had 
had  his  conversation  in  the  world,  and  more 
abundantly  toward  you^  (2  Cor.  1.)  Your 
luxurious  hospitalities  did  not  tempt  him;  the 
license,  so  often  pleaded  in  cities  against  clerical 
straitness,  was  not  taken  advantage  of  by  him  ;  his 
private  habits  continued  in  the  Fifth  A  venue  as  sim- 
ple as  they  were  in  Charlotte ;  and  when  he  refused 
your  generous  proposal  to  increase  his  stipend,  it 
was  not  (as  has  been  said)  because  the  revenue 
from  his  office  was  wholy  sufficient  of  Itself,  but 
because  he  would  do  what  he  could  to  obviate 
the  popular  prejudice  on  that  subject.  Should 
we  not  acknowledge  all  this  as  a  gracious  endow- 
ment that  was  to  enable  this  follower  of  Ilim  who 


ALWAYS   IN   REMEMBRANCE.  61 

came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister, 
to  commend  "  tliese  things"  of  the  Gospel  whicli 
he  preached,  to  your  remembrance  after  his  de- 
cease ? 

It  was  this  sincerity  showing  itself  in  such 
tender  and  affectionate  sensibility  that  made  its 
way  to  every  heart.  How  his  eye,  his  tones,  his 
countenance,  his  quick  attention,  testified  the 
delicate  tenderness  of  his  inmost  soul,  when  au}^ 
sorrow,  or  peril,  or  joy  in  another  touched  his 
sympathy  !  He  made  you  feel  that  he  was  in- 
terested for  you,  and  that  his  expressions  were 
the  feeblest  index  of  the  amount  of  his  concern. 
I  am  persuaded  that  neither  his  outward  activi- 
ty, nor  any  other  demonstrations,  revealed  fully 
the  extent  to  which  his  heart  glowed  with  zeal  to 
see  more  unity  among  the  followers  of  Christ, 
more  practical  fellowship  and  cooperation  among 
ministers  of  the  Gospel,  especially  those  of  the 
same  communion,  more  earnest,  extended,  and 
indefati stable  labor  to  reach  the  miseries  and  sins 
of  such  a  city  as  New-York.  I  am  sure  it  is  onl}^ 
the  simple  truth  I  utter  when  I  say  that  his  spirit 
groaned  in  witnessing  the  extension  of  crime, 
wretchedness,  and  unbelief,  and  in  the  anxiety  to 
see  the  whole  force  of  the  entire  Church  of  Christ 
brought  out  to  personal  devotedness,  by  direct 
activity  and  humble  work,  as  well  as  liberal  do- 


62  HAVE   THESE   THINGS 

nations,  in  the  only  cause  worth  living  and  dj^ing 
for. 

His  views  were  broad,  noble,  unselfish,  and 
unjealous.  His  knowledge  was  universal.*  His 
character,  intellectual  and  spiritual,  was  remark- 
ably complete  and  uniform ;  its  symmetrj^  was 
not  broken,  ever  and  anon,  by  erratic  or  irregu- 
gular  deviations  ;  his  "  this  one  thing  I  do,"  was 
not  some  favorite  atom  occupying  his  mind  b}'' 
itself,  but  the  one  great  whole  of  truth  and  duty 
according  to  the  proportions  in  which  it  stands  in 
revelation.  He  was,  consequently,  eminently 
safe  and  worthy  of  reliance ;  and  if  I  may  be 
excused  for  resorting  to  a  familiar  classical 
phrase  to  express  it,  he  was,  like  the  "  sapiens" 
of  the  Roman  satirist,  in  himself  complete,  pol- 
ished and  round, t  a  man  for  the  whole  Church 
and  f  )r  all  the  world. 

And  now,  my  brethren  of  this  congregation, 
and  of  this  community,  having  made  this  too  de- 
sultory sketch  of  the  life  and  the  character  of  this 
deceased  minister,  with  the  main  object  in  view 

*  His  father  was  remarkable  for  the  extent  of  his  information, 
but  I  remember  once  making  an  inquiry  of  him,  and  receiving  for 
a  reply :   "Ask  James,  he  knows  every  thing." 

f  "  In  seipso  totus,  teres  atque  rotundus, 
Extern!  ne  quid  valeat  per  la3ve  morari." 

IJor.  Sat.  ii.  "7. 


ALWAYS  IN   REMEMBRANCE.  63 

of  making  more  impressive  a  sense  of  your  own 
privileges  and  responsibilities,  by  showing  how 
he  w^as  trained  and  guided  for  your  service  ;  what 
great  endowments  he  thus  acquired  to  be  ex- 
pended for  your  benefit ;  what  a  character  he  by 
grace  attained,  to  commend  to  you  the  religion 
of  which  he  was  a  minister ;  you  must  perceive 
how  appropriate  is  the  application  of  the  Apos- 
tle's sentiment,  that  now,  after  the  decease  of 
such  a  Pastor,  you  should  have  always  in  remem- 
brance just  what  the  Apostle  meant  by  what  he 
called,  "  tliese  things."  Five  times  in  this  one 
chapter  he  uses  the  same  phrase.  At  every  re- 
petition it  is  employed  to  denote  the  grand  prac- 
tical, indispensable  fruits  of  Gospel  truth.  "If 
'  these  things'  be  in  you  and  abound,  ye  shall 
not  be  unfruitful  in  the  knowledge  of  Christ ;  but 
he  that  lacketh  'these  things'  is  blind  ;  if  ye  do 
'  these  things,'  ye  shall  nev^er  fall ;  I  will  not  be 
negligent  to  put  you  always  in  remembrance  of 
'  these  things  ;'  moreover  I  will  endeavor  that  ye 
may  be  able  after  my  decease  to  have  '  these 
things'  always  in  remembrance." 

They  were  these  things  —  the  great,  practical, 
saving  things  of  Divine  revelation — which  were 
most  prominent  in  his  preaching ;  and  if  his 
voice  could  be  heard  once  more,  this  day,  in  the 
clear,  earnest,  sincere,  affectionate  tones  in  which 


6-i  HAVE   THESE   THINGS 

you  have  been  accustomed  to  hear  hi  in  speak  to 
you  from  this  spot,  it  woukl  say  :  Have  these 
things  always  in  remembrance ;  remember  ine 
chietly  as  the  ambassador  of  Christ  to  you  ;  let 
the  messages  of  truth,  which  I  liave  delivered, 
be  the  most  prominent  in  your  recollections ; 
think  more  of  Christ  than  of  me  ;  let  not  the 
fondness  of  your  personal  regard,  and  the  grief 
for  your  loss,  cause  you  to  forget,  that  the  im- 
mutable doctrine  I  have  taught  you,  survives  all 
inen  —  is  independent  of  their  ministr3^  "  I 
preached  not  myself,  but  Christ  Jesus,  the  Lord, 
and  myself,  your  servant,  for  Jesus'  sake." 
(2  Cor.  4.)  "  I  have  not  shunned  to  declare 
unto  you  all  the  counsel  of  God."  (Acts  20.) 
Yes,  my  brethren,  you  know  as  well  as  I  do,  that 
if  he  liad  the  direction  of  this  day's  services,  he 
would  have  the  connection  of  his  name  with 
them  used  supremely  for  the  purpose  of  recalling 
to  and  impressing  on  your  remembrance  the 
words  of  Christ.  I  call  npon  you,  therefore,  this 
solemn  day,  to  consider  by  what  a  long,  arduous, 
painful  process  the  Divine  Providence  qualified 
your  former  Pastor  to  serve  you  with  sucli  fidel- 
ity ;  how  abundantly  he  instructed  you  out  of 
the  pure  oracles  of  revealed  truth  ;  how  every 
class,  age,  and  condition  of  his  charge,  found  in 
him  all    tluit  can   ever  be  found   in  such   frail 


ALWAYS   IN   REMEMBRANCE.  65 

vessels  as  the  best  of  ministers  are  ;  his  labors,  so 
extended  and  adapted  that  each  finds  some  spe- 
cial cause  to  remember  what  he  did  for  them- 
selves. I  summon  you,  in  the  name  of  Ilim 
wliose  servant  he  was,  to  remember  how  weighty 
is  the  obligation  on  you  all  to  respond  to  this  in- 
fluence, ilis  time  was,  in  your  view  indeed,  la- 
mentably short ;  but  it  was  long  enough  to  make 
eternal  consequences  vibrate  on  the  issue  as  to 
each  soul— of  life  unto  life,  or  of  death  unto 
death.  It  was  long  enough,  if  time  were  all,  to 
have  converted  every  one  to  Christ,  to  have 
brought  every  believer  to  Christ's  standard  of 
what  his  disciples  should  be.  And  I  am  sure,  I 
do  not  exaggerate  the  fullness  with  which  he  de- 
clared the  whole  counsel  committed  to  him,  when 
I  say  that  his  preaching,  his  conversation,  his  ca- 
techetical and  other  instructions  of  the  young, 
have  been  sufficient,  as  to  their  substance,  to  ac- 
complish these  results,  so  far  as  the  administration 
of  the  means  of  grace  is  sufficient.  What  a  re- 
flection is  this  for  each  member  of  the  congre- 
gation to  make,  as  you  meet  to-day,  as  it  were  at 
the  silent  grave  of  him  who  was  so  lately  wear- 
ing out  his  very  life  to  do  you  good  !  "  My  de- 
ceased Pastor  has  taught  me  enough  to  convert 
me  from  the  error  of  my  way,  and  save  my  soul 
from  death  ;  he  has  exhibited,  by  doctrine  and 


66  HAVE   THESE   THINGS 

by  pattern,  what  I  ought  to  be  as  a  spiritually- 
minded  believer;  he  has  warned  me  against 
worklliness  and  formalism,  as  the  great  cankers 
of  piety  ;  lie  has  shown  me  what  it  is  to  liv^e  in 
the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus,  the  love  of  God,  and 
the  communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  he  lias  both 
testified  and  exemplified  the  obligation  of  i)er- 
sonal  zeal  for  the  kino-dom  of  tlie  Ttedeemer,  an 
untiring,  daily  concern  for  the  wants  and  woes  of 
my  fellow-men  ;  in  all  this,  he  was  not  a  mere 
phihanthropist,  not  a  theorist  dreaming  new  de- 
vices for  the  remedy  of  social  evils,  but  an  accre- 
dited representative  of  Christ  and  the  Gospel, 
and  so  speaking  the  authoritative  messages  of 
God  himself;  and  his  mission  was  to  me ^'  for  it 
he  was  prepared  by  Providence  through  long  years 
of  study,  of  anguish,  and  the  multiform  occu- 
pations and  experiences  of  his  life,  so  that  it  is,  as 
to  my  own  opportunity  and  responsibility,  as  if 
all  this  had  been  done  and  endured  for  myself." 
Keed  I  follow  out  these  reflections  to  their  ]es:i- 
timate  conclusion  ?  It  is  too  obvious  to  be 
missed,  too  solemn  in  the  very  statement  to  need 
enforcement.  I  charge  you  then,  whilst  you 
weep  this  day  in  the  afltectionate  commemoration 
of  your  Pastor,  let  the  great  improvement  of  the 
event  be,  to  have  in  remembrance,  now  after  his 
decease,  and   always,   the   things  wliich,  in   the 


ALWAYS   IN   REMEMBRANCE.  67 

name  of  his  Lord  and  Master,  he  spake  while  he 
was  yet  with  joii.  The  highest  honor  to  his  me- 
mory, the  best  tribute  to  his  character,  the  most 
suitable  attestation  to  his  fidelity,  will  be  your 
steadfast  adherence  to  the  doctrines  delivered  to 
you.  This  will  show  that  the  distinction  of  his 
ministry  among  you  was  not  that  of  temporary 
popularity,  nor  only  of  personal  attachment,  but 
of  his  having  been  received  by  you  for  the  truth's 
sake — for  Christ's  sake. 

Some  allow  themselves  to  become  so  attached 
to  a  particular  minister,  that  it  may  almost  be 
said  that  their  religion  consists  in  admiring  him. 
Apart  from  his  preaching,  they  scarcely  recog- 
nize the  value  of  the  ordinances  of  the  Lord's 
house :  and  when  he  is  removed,  they  lament  as 
if  nothing  was  left.  But  the  decease  of  such  a 
minister  is  a  still  louder  call  on  those  who  have 
heard  him,  while  living,  only  to  be  pleased,  but 
not  to  be  regarded.  I  am  heard  by  some  now 
who  are  reminded  of  his  faithful  but  tender  ex- 
postulations with  them  in  private  as  well  as  in 
public — by  notes  and  letters  as  well  as  by  pointed 
sermons  :  will  you  not  now  perceive  that  God 
has  taken  away  your  human  reliance,  that  he 
might  make  you  hear  more  distinctly  His  own 
divine  voice  :  removed  the  human  mediator  that 
you  might  feel  that  there  is  in  truth  but  one  ef- 
fectual Mediator,  Christ  Jesus,  and  that  to  Him 


68  HAVE   THESE   THINGS 

joii  must  go  forthwith  and  directly  ?  If  joii  have 
neglected  jour  beloved  Pastor,  as  to  the  highest 
purpose  for  which  he  was  sent  to  you,  beware 
iiow  you  now  put  from  your  remembrance,  after 
his  decease,  the  things  that  belong  to  your  peace, 
and  which,  otherwise  may,  like  himself,  be  soon 
hidden  from  your  eyes.  Listen  while  I  repro- 
duce a  few  paragraphs  from  a  well  remembered 
and  prophetic  discourse  which  he  addressed  to 
a  congregation  in  this  cit}^,  but  a  few  weeks 
before  he  left  his  pulpit  to  be  seen  in  it  no 
more :  "  Ministers  of  the  Gospel  often  lament 
in  secret  over  the  indiii'erencc  with  which  their 
messages  are  heard,  and  sometimes  they  fore- 
cast a  time,  after  their  decease,  when  their 
words  may  come  back  to  these  hearers  with  a 
prevailing  force.  In  this  way,  as  well  as  others, 
dead  ministers  continue  to  preach.  It  is  wise  to 
cherish  their  memory.  Remember,  them  .  .  . 
which  have  spoken  unto  you  the  word  of  God ; 
whose  faith  follow.  .  .  Ah !  my  respected  but 
unconverted  hearers,  we  come  to  you,  after  many 
trials  of  preparation  and  with  much  conscious- 
ness of  infirmity,  sermon  after  sermon.  Sabbath 
after  Sabbath,  month  after  month,  year  after 
year  ;  we  grow  gray  and  feeble  waiting  on  you 
with  the  Lord's  message,  which  you  will  not  con- 
sider ;  and  then  we  die  and  you  are  released  from 
the  distasteful  reiteration  of  warning  and  entreaty. 


ALWAYS   IN    REMEMBRANCE.  69 

God  grant  that  the  day  may  not  come  when  you 
shall  gaze  on  some  marble  and  wish  us  back ;  and 
when  echo  shall  seem  to  say  with  Samuel — 
'  Wherefore  then  dost  thou  ask  of  me,  seeing  the 
Lord  is  departed  from  thee,  and  is  become  thine 
enemy  V  Suppose  we  could  return  all  ghastly  to 
stand  beside  your  death-bed,  we  could  bring  you 
no  gospel  which  you  have  not  rejected.  Nothing 
will  have  come  upon  you  but  that  which  we  had 
predicted.  You  have  been  forewarned  ;  so  was 
Saul.  Hence  the  prophet  whom  he  invokes  says 
to  him  :  '  And  the  Lord  hath  done  to  him  as  he 
spake  by  me  .  .  .  because  thou  obeyedst  not 
the  voice  of  the  Lord.'  " 

This  comes  to  you  now  as  a  voice  from  the 
grave  of  your  Pastor  —  the  very  voice  you  once 
heard  audibly  pronounce  these  very  words,  and 
at  the  sound  of  which  you  trembled,  but  said, 
"  Go  thy  way  for  this  time  " — when  you  return 
once  more  we  ^oiU  give  heed  ! 

Turn  now,  every  one  who  has  been  under  this 
ministry  for  years,  and  only  to  defer  repentance, 
and  then  all  that  we  foolishly  call  the  mj^stery  of 
Providence  in  causing  such  a  saint  to  be  such  a 
sufferer,  and  in  removing  him  in  the  very  height 
of  his  power,  will  be  explained,  sufficiently  at 
least  for  your  satisfaction,  in  making  effectual  by 
the  fact  of  his  death  what  failed  to  be  effectual 
by  the  continuance  of  his  life.     You  would  not 


70  HAVE   THESE   THINGS 

turn  for  the  living  pastor,  oh  !  turn  now  in  the 
remembrance  of  his  warnings,  after  his  decease ! 
Cherish,  people  of  his  charge,  cherish  and  ful- 
fill his  plans.  Tliej  were  the  result  of  long  and 
mature  thought,  wide  observation,  long  experi- 
ence, and  fervent  praj^er,  and  are  not  likely  to  be 
suddenly  or  easily  improved.  By  thus  building 
on  the  foundation  he  has  laid,  you  may  continue 
to  enjoy  his  wisdom  and  piety  in  some  of  their 
most  substantial  effects  :  and  happy  will  it  be  if 
the  Timotheus  who  shall  succeed  this  Paul  "  shall 
[in  this  sense]  bring  you  into  remembrance  of 
HIS  WAYS  wdiich  be  in  Christ,"  (1  Cor.  4.)  as  well 
as  in  the  larger  sense,  call  upon  you  to  remember 
him  who  has  spoken  unto  you  the  w^ord  of  God  ; 
whose  faith  follow,  considering  the  end  of  his  con- 
versation, "  Jesus  Christ,  the  same  yesterday  and 
to-day,  and  forever."  (Ileb.  13.)  It  will  then 
be  as  if  he  w^ere  still  "abiding  and  continuing 
with  you  all  for  your  furtherance  and  joy  of 
faith  :"  and  it  may  be,  dear  brethren,  no  extrava- 
gant or  unscriptural  conception  to  continue  the 
citation,  even  thougli  we  now  speak  in  the  name 
of  a  minister  after  his  decease — ^"  only  let  your 
conversation  be  as  it  becometh  the  Gospel  of 
Christ — that  whether  I  come  and  see  you,  or  else 
BE  ABSENT,  I  may  iiEAii  of  your  affairs,  tliat  ye 
stand  fast  in  one  spirit,  with  one  mind  striving 
together  for  the  faith  of  the  Gospel.''     (Phil.  1.) 


ALWAYS   IN   REMEMBRANCE.  71 

Oh  !  you  know  that  nothing  colder  than  apostol- 
ic language  would  express  the  heartiness,  the 
warmth,  of  the  interest  he  felt  for  your  souls  !  It 
was  with  him,  as  with  the  writers  of  the  Epistles 
to  the  Churches,  a  labor  of  love  to  minister  to 
you.  It  was  without  affectation  he  could  address 
you  as  "  my  brethren,  dearly  beloved  and  longed 
for,  my  joy  and  crown  .  .  my  dearly  beloved." 
(Phil.  4.)  "  If  I  be  not  an  apostle  unto  others, 
yet  doubtless  I  am  to  you :  for  the  seal  of  mine 
apostleship  are  ye  in  the  Lord."  (1  Cor.  9.) 
'  We  were  gentle  among  you,  even  as  a  nurse 
cherisheth  her  [own]  children  ;  so  being  affec- 
tionately desirous  of  you,  we  were  willing  to 
have  imparted  unto  you,  not  the  Gospel  of  God 
only,  but  also  our  own  souls,  because  ye  were 
dear  unto  us.  .  .  .  Ye  are  witnesses,  and  God 
also,  how  holily  and  justly  and  unblamably  we 
behaved  ourselves  among  you  that  believe :  as 
ye  know  how  we  exhorted  and  comforted  and 
charged  every  one  of  you,  as  a  father  doth  his 
children,  that  ye  would  walk  worthy  of  God,  who 
hath  called  you  unto  his  kingdom  and  glory." 
(1  Thess.  2.) 

Yes,  my  brethren,  we  speak  of  the  decease  of 
our  beloved  Alexander :  but  the  word  has  lost 
its  true  meaning — that  of  departure — by  our  cus- 
tomary associations.  It  is  in  the  original  Exodus, 
a  going  out  of,  the  very  word  used  in  the  nar- 


72  HAVE   THESE  THINGS 

rative  of  the  Transtiguration,  when  Moses  and 
Elias  spoke  of  the  "  decease,''  the  exodus,  the 
departure,  of  the  Lord  Jesus  which  he  should 
accomplish  at  Jerusalem.  (Luke  9.)  The  de- 
cease of  Christ  was  his  passage  to  the  Father's 
glory :  it  was  as  one  continuous  event  with  his 
Eesurrection  and  Ascension.  And  so,  that  de- 
parted but  everliving  Kedeemer,  says  this  day  as 
truly  as  when  he  spoke  similar  words  in  Bethany, 
of  one  then  in  his  grave,  "  Our  friend  Alexander 
SLEEPETii ;  but  I  go  that  I  may  awake  him  out  of 
sleep.- '  Note  how  the  Son  of  God  identities  him- 
self alike  with  his  living  and  departed  disciples 
— ''''our  friend  Lazarus."  Then  our  friend  is  not 
dead :  he  sleej^s  and  does  well :  for  the  Resurrec- 
tion and  the  Life,  in  whom  he  believed,  has  de- 
clared that  he  "  shall  never  die."  Oh  !  how  such 
a  man  must  enjoy  heaven  !  What  a  relish  and 
capacity  for  it  was  his  soul  acquiring  all  his  life  ! 
What  a  preparation  for  this  were  his  years  of 
sorrow  and  of  toil !  Yes  !  he  was  confident  he 
was  approaching  all  this,  when  he  cried:  "I 
know  whom  I  have  believed,  and  am  persuaded 
that  he  is  able  to  keep  that  which  I  have  com- 
mitted unto  him  against  that  da3\"  (2  Tim.  1.) 
Here  we  may  well  stop.  May  his  God  and  our 
God  so  keep  us  all,  that  we  fail  not  to  follow  him 
and  the  happy  multitudes  who  through  faitli  and 
patience  inherit  the  promises  ! 


Inscription  on  the  Tablet  erected  by  the  congre- 
gation on  the  left  of  the  pulpit  of  the  church  : 

IN    MEMORY    OF 
James   Waddel.   Alexander,   D,  D., 

FOR     Vi     YEARS 

THE      B  K  L  0  V  E  D      A  N  l>      K  E  V  E  11  E  D      P  A  S  '1'  0  R 

OF     THIS     CHURCH ; 

WHOSE     SINOULAR     NATURAL     GIFTS, 

RIPENED     BY     GENEROUS     CULTURE. 

WERE     SUCCESSFULLY    GIVEN 

TO    HIS   SACRED   WORK: 

AND    WHO,    BY    HIS     FERVENT     PIETY, 

PURE     LIFE, 

TENDER     AFFECTIONS,     LARGE     BENEVOLENCE, 

AND    UNSPARING    LABOUR, 

SO     ENDEARED      HIMSELF     TO     HIS     PEOPLE. 

THAT     THEY     MOURN 

AS     FOR    A    DEAR     BROTHER     AND     BELOVED     FRIEND. 

HE    WAS     BORN     MARCH     13th,    1^.04. 

HE    DIED    JULY    Slt^T,    1859, 

DECLARING, 

AS     THE     SUM     OF     HIS     FAITH     AND     HOPE. 

"  /  know  v.'/io/fi  I  have  believed,  and  am  persuaded 
that  he  ix  able  to  keep  that  which  I  have  committed  to 
bint    aqainaf    that    dai/.^^ 


^i^m 


H^  "A  !'•■ 


A'  .f^^  ■  ' 


■  'Kn 


.Oa^.       ^'^ 


w 


•iA-Oy!?s^l 


V  </*^-'y.r  ' 

wA 

•  /^rN'N 

\  /^^\'rr. 

^^V 

^  -pf^A 

V  /«^':> .. '^'j 

-V      \ 

•  /^  A'> 

'      /^^-v         ^ 

''% 

'^^ 

^^^^ 

* 

*^r  . 

/  -  -  ~  > 

^^A^ 


^AA"    -Ar^jk 


-c/r-<r^ 


'^ 


c  ( 

€^_'-yii^,     -...Cj 

V^ 

ZS  ^ 

■  *c::  ^'    ^ 

■c    ■■-  ;:« 

^ 

t^i^ 

=>"^-"""d^ 

■   >-'>^--^v 

4S 

,    ."!^^;i;£^-- 

•?^r" 

— ^^_^ 

-'"            "        i 

-c-' 

^ 

C'cC-- 

' '  ^"'C^ 

^ii 

■',  cc:'-' 

t<^ 

-< 

^!^:  > 

^«2:- 

'■^ 

3^M~^"S-^^  '"^ 

...  -,    .  ,*;   <::; 

'^'^' 

^-"^^^■-■";.-  ~'""' 

'^.^^.. 

j4 

'^^^.^JX^ 

■^-  -^-  r^^^^  ■ 

e^ 

r   -  ' 

'    r^^if^t 

"y^-^ 

7^« 

C'l'^  "r- 

t.^-- 1^  • 

_«a 

<r'l-<'X.  : 

^V<*^    C 

'<r:^c^ 


<ra^cr 


-     :r<C 

c 

S^^^ 

f.--St- 

3c:;-c.  , 

C^.^; 


--      +*;  ■■<■ 


■  S<iJ}  <s^ 


'acdiC:.: 


'■re: -  ■  -c:.,  'CfC 


Wm: 


**w 


fl 


